Dive Brief:

• Concern persists nationwide that teacher evaluation scores may be inflated, with most K-12 educators receiving positive marks for “effective” teaching, but a new study from Education Next suggests reform efforts around evals in Washington, DC, may have proven successful in boosting teacher proficiency, according to Education Week.
• Supporters say IMPACT, the teacher evaluation system started by former chancellor Michelle Rhee in 2009, has offered more differentiation between teacher scores and caused low-performing teachers to leave their jobs, with higher-scoring teachers replacing them — though critics maintain it can be very difficult for teachers to get marks of high performance in low-performing schools.
• While there is some research to suggest student achievement improved after low-performing teachers left the profession, supporters caution that it may be difficult to scale the evaluation system beyond DC, as the area had a unique combination of federal and foundational support that may be lacking in other locations, as well as a reform-minded chancellor who was able to make the change.

Dive Insight:

The news on student achievement in DC schools is promising, though the District of Columbia’s public school system fared poorly on a recent survey of school districts and states nationwide that measured some achievement standards. District leaders and administrators must also be mindful of critics’ contention that it is difficult for capable teachers to achieve high marks in low-performing schools, because this could exacerbate the issue of low levels of teacher retention at the most vulnerable schools in a district system.

The issue is already of primary concern for school leaders, according to a 2015 report from New York University’s Steinhardt Department of Teaching and Learning. NYU cited previous research showing underserved schools lost about 20% of their faculty each year, with New York City seeing as much as 66% of its teaching force leaving within their first five years.

Low levels of retention can have substantial costs, both financially (The National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future estimated turnover costs about $7.3 billion per year, according to NYU), and for students' future potential. Districts considering using the DC approach as a model must take into account the need to make sure that, as low-performing teachers are encouraged to leave the profession based on evaluations, they don’t inadvertently force out the talented teachers located in challenging schools. They are all the more necessary in those facilities. 

Districts can try to solve this problem in a variety of ways, including a more holistic view on assessments, incorporating methods and means beyond summative assessments on exams as a form of teacher evaluation. Many advocates of balanced assessments argue that summative assessments alone are not beneficial for improving teacher performance in the midst of their instruction during the school year. Administrators could also make additional teacher training and development available for educators, or encourage it among peers for teachers struggling with proficiency but feeling they have the skill and ambition to improve.