Frequency of Evaluations : Oklahoma

Identifying Effective Teachers Policy

Goal

The state should require annual evaluations of all teachers.

Meets goal
Suggested Citation:
National Council on Teacher Quality. (2011). Frequency of Evaluations : Oklahoma results. State Teacher Policy Database. [Data set].
Retrieved from: https://www.nctq.org/yearbook/state/OK-Frequency-of-Evaluations--8

Analysis of Oklahoma's policies

Commendably, all teachers in Oklahoma must be evaluated at least annually. 

Nonprobationary teachers are required to be evaluated once a year. New teachers in Oklahoma must be evaluated twice a year. The first evaluation must be completed by November 15 and the second by February 10.

Citation

Recommendations for Oklahoma

Base evaluations on multiple observations.
To guarantee that annual evaluations are based on an adequate collection of information, Oklahoma should require multiple observations for all teachers, even those who have nonprobationary status. Further, as evaluation instruments become more data driven, it may not be feasible to issue multiple formal evaluation ratings during a single year.  Applicable student data will likely not be available to support multiple ratings.  

State response to our analysis

Oklahoma recognized the factual accuracy of this analysis.

Research rationale

For the frequency of evaluations in government and private industry, see survey results from Hudson Employment Index's report: "Pay and Performance in America: 2005 Compensation and Benefits Report" Hudson Highlands Group (2005).

For research emphasizing the importance of evaluation and observations for new teachers in predicting future success and providing support for teachers see, D. Staiger and J. Rockoff, "Searching for Effective Teachers with Imperfect Information." The Journal of Economic Perspectives. (24:3) American Economic Association (2010).