Frequency of Evaluations : Washington
Identifying Effective Teachers Policy
Analysis of Washington's policies
Commendably, all teachers in Washington must be evaluated at least annually.
Nonprobationary teachers are required to be evaluated once a year, with a minimum of two classroom observations.
New teachers in Washington must also be formally evaluated once a year. However, to gather information for this evaluation, the state mandates a minimum of two observations, with the first one occurring within the first 90 days of the school year. Within three days of each observation, teachers receive written results of their performance. Teachers in their third year of teaching must be observed at least three times.
Recommendations for Washington
State response to our analysis
Washington recognized the factual accuracy of this analysis. The state noted that the provisional status for new teachers was increased in the 2010 legislative session from two to three years. Therefore, a teacher in his or her third year of provisional status must be observed at least three times, for a total of 90 minutes' observation time.
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Washington
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Delivering Well Prepared Teachers
- Admission into Preparation Programs
- Elementary Teacher Preparation
- Elementary Teacher Preparation in Reading Instruction
- Elementary Teacher Preparation in Mathematics
- Middle School Teacher Preparation
- Secondary Teacher Preparation
- Secondary Teacher Preparation in Science
- Secondary Teacher Preparation in Social Studies
- Special Education Teacher Preparation
- Assessing Professional Knowledge
- Student Teaching
- Teacher Preparation Program Accountability
Expanding the Pool of Teachers
Identifying Effective Teachers
- State Data Systems
- Evaluation of Effectiveness
- Frequency of Evaluations
- Tenure
- Licensure Advancement
- Equitable Distribution
Retaining Effective Teachers
Exiting Ineffective Teachers
Research rationale
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).