When teachers and students share the responsibility for learning, students become active agents in their own learning who respond to feedback, set learning goals, track their progress, and adapt their own learning strategies when needed. Formative assessment provides a clear path forward to this kind of teaching and learning experience, and site…

The Ohio Principal Evaluation System (OPES) was collaboratively developed by Ohio superintendents, school administrators, higher education faculty, and representatives from Ohio's administrator associations. It was designed to be research-based, transparent, fair and adaptable to the specific contexts of Ohio's districts (rural, urban, suburban,…

Focusing on just three things--evidence of student learning, feedback on teacher and principal decisions, and depth of implementation--renowned author and thinker Douglas B. Reeves provides you with a blueprint for how to ensure professional development improves student learning. Find out: (1) Which ineffective professional development practices…

With the need to meet a set of higher accountability standards such as Interstate School Leaders Licensure Consortium (ISLLC) Standards and the AYP benchmarks of the NCLB Act, for example, school principals are faced with the knowledge that they play a vital role in school effectiveness as well as teacher retention, parent participation, and…

Principals can play a pivotal role in the improvement of student learning by helping teachers develop and use sound classroom assessments that will strengthen instruction and student learning. The typical teacher will spend a quarter to a third of her or his available professional time involved in assessment-related activities. If they do it well,…

Background: Through its Children First initiative, New York City policymakers promoted collaborative inquiry as a process for helping administrators and teachers use student data to improve instruction and raise student achievement. Since 2007, city schools were expected to engage higher proportions of faculty in the inquiry work each year.…

Since the "National Science Education Standards" were published in 1996, it has become apparent that the standards did not provide sufficient guidance on the key topics needed for implementation. Assessment was identified as a topic requiring more detail and guidance, as well as scientific inquiry, technology in the science curriculum,…

Peer evaluation has great potential as a method of improving classroom instruction and enhancing the self-esteem and professional growth of teachers. The peer evaluation format would be more formative than summative and might include team teaching, videotaping, and reflective teaching--a carefully structured method of peer teaching. (JHZ)

To make merit-pay plans work, a district's teacher-evaluation system must be both summative and formative--evaluating both for teacher outcomes and for progressive improvement. Only peer-mediated self-appraisal systems seem able to meet such a challenge. Fairly rewarded merit-pay plans depend on accurate teacher evaluations. However, teacher…

The complete process of initiating and monitoring an evaluation program is presented, noting that the ability to assess the performance of administrators and implement programs to enhance their skills and abilities is essential to the effective management of higher learning institutions. Such field tested resources as evaluation forms, performance…

Discussed is a type of evaluation unlike traditional methods in that it gives students an opportunity to exercise an influence on their own situation. Planning, procedures, and recordings are described. (CW)