Frequency of Evaluations: Tennessee
Identifying Effective Teachers Policy
Analysis of Tennessee's policies
All teachers in Tennessee must be evaluated at least annually.
The number of required observations is differentiated based on the prior year's performance as well as license type. Apprentice teachers scoring 1-4 on their overall evaluation or growth score must be observed six times: three observations during the first half of the year and three during the latter half of the year. Professional teachers scoring 1-4 on their overall evaluation or growth score must be observed four times, equally distributed across the two semesters. All teachers scoring 5 on the overall evaluation or growth score must be observed once during the first semester, with two walkthroughs during the second semester.
Following each observation, a postobservation conference is scheduled to discuss performance.
Recommendations for Tennessee
As a result of Tennessee’s strong frequency of evaluations policies, no recommendations are provided.
State response to our analysis
Tennessee recognized the factual accuracy of this analysis. The state added that the number of observations is differentiated based on prior year performance as well as license type. All teachers scoring a 1 on their overall evaluation or individual growth will receive four observations—two announced and two unannounced. Apprentice teachers scoring a 2-4 on their overall evaluation and neither a 1 nor a 5 on individual growth will receive four observations—two announced and two unannounced. Professional teachers scoring a 2-4 on their overall evaluation and neither a 1 nor a 5 on individual growth will receive two observations—one announced and one unannounced. All teachers who received a 5 on their overall evaluation or individual growth will receive one observation and two walkthroughs.
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Tennessee
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Delivering Well Prepared Teachers
- Admission into Teacher Preparation
- Elementary Teacher Preparation
- Elementary Teacher Preparation in Reading Instruction
- Elementary Teacher Preparation in Mathematics
- Early Childhood
- Middle School Teacher Preparation
- Secondary Teacher Preparation
- Secondary Teacher Preparation in Science and Social Studies
- Special Education Teacher Preparation
- Special Education Preparation in Reading
- 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
Pensions
Research rationale
Annual evaluations
are standard practice in most professional jobs.
Although there has been much progress on this front
recently, about half of the states still do not mandate annual evaluations of
teachers who have reached permanent or tenured status. The lack of regular
evaluations is unique to the teaching profession and does little to advance the
notion that teachers are professionals.
Further, teacher evaluations are too often treated as mere
formalities rather than as important tools for rewarding good teachers, helping
average teachers improve and holding weak teachers accountable for poor
performance. State policy should reflect the importance of evaluations so that
teachers and principals alike take their consequences seriously.
Evaluations are
especially important for new teachers.
Individuals new to a profession frequently have reduced
responsibilities coupled with increased oversight. As competencies are
demonstrated, new responsibilities are added and supervision decreases. Such is
seldom the case for new teachers, who generally have the same classroom
responsibilities as veteran teachers, including responsibility for the academic
progress of their students, but may receive limited feedback on their
performance. In the absence of good metrics for determining who will be an
effective teacher before he or she begins to teach, it is critical that schools
and districts closely monitor the performance of new teachers.
The state should specifically require that districts observe
new teachers early in the school year. This policy would help ensure that new
teachers get the support they need early and that supervisors know from the
beginning of the school year which new teachers (and which students) may be at
risk. Subsequent observations provide important data about the teacher's
ability to improve. Data from evaluations from the teacher's early years of
teaching can then be used as part of the performance-based evidence to make a
decision about tenure.
Frequency of Evaluations: Supporting Research
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 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." Journal of Economic Perspectives. Volume 24, No. 3, Summer 2010, pp. 97-118.