The turn toward public accountability for educator preparation programs (EPPs) has been met with both optimism that public scrutiny will improve the quality of teacher education and concern over a perceived disconnect between public accountability tools and effective teacher preparation. This study examines the impact of the accountability metrics…

The turn toward public accountability for educator preparation programs (EPPs) has been met with both optimism that public scrutiny will improve the quality of teacher education and concern over a perceived disconnect between public accountability tools and effective teacher preparation. This study examines the impact of the accountability metrics…

The turn toward public accountability for educator preparation programs (EPPs) has been met with both optimism that public scrutiny will improve the quality of teacher education and concern over a perceived disconnect between public accountability tools and effective teacher preparation. This study examines the impact of the accountability metrics…

The push for accountability in public schooling has extended to the measurement of teacher performance, accelerated by federal efforts through Race to the Top. Currently, a large number of states and districts across the country are computing measures of teacher performance based on the standardized test scores of their students and using them in…

Teacher evaluation has emerged as a key strategy for improving student outcomes in public education. The rationale is compelling: teachers vary widely in their effectiveness, and evaluation systems need to identify and address this variation. Performance evaluations have historically been largely perfunctory: no meaningful feedback is provided, no…

"Means to an End" is a practical toolkit for structuring the design process, elevating important issues, and identifying tensions and trade-offs that need to be resolved. The guide was conceived at a 2011 Aspen Institute workshop that brought together leading educators, researchers, and policymakers to share strategies for designing and…

The Scottish chartered teacher programme (2003-2011) is an important example of a national policy designed to support the development of "accomplished teaching". This paper provides an account of the emergence of the programme before discussing how the impact of such a scheme might be assessed and thus rendered accountable. The…

Italy is well known for its difficulty in introducing any educational evaluation system. This paper explores the dynamics which occurred in Italy in 2010-2011, within the context of the umpteenth national pilot of school and staff evaluation. Our research object is an unfinished project, observed in its development. We get close to the struggles…

The public demand for accountability, legislative mandates, and increased unionization of teachers have focused attention on the inadequacies of traditional teacher evaluation procedures. Attempts to design models that differentiate effective and noneffective teaching have not produced agreed-upon sets of competencies, characteristics or behaviors…

Several models of curriculum and staff development are described to provide guidance toward the goal of harmoniously blending a humanized curriculum and humanized instruction. The author compares the "explosive" and "implosive" designs for program development and instruction and argues that the implosive design should be adopted and that…

This article attempts to provide British educators, who face a similar trend, with a synthesis of some major developments in the Accountability in Education movement in the United States. (Author/SJL)

Multiyear study of a small school district in Virginia finds that portfolios enhance the accountability and professional development purposes of teacher evaluation. While finding portfolios to be fair and accurate measures of teacher performance, teachers and administrators expressed concern about the time required to develop them. (Contains 3…

The following points are made in discussing the practical and political problems involved in implementing a teaching evaluation system for rewarding and improving instructional effectiveness. (1) We have an obligation to put a higher priority on teaching than we have done so far. (2) Any evaluation system should be tied to a strong system for…

Considered teaching effectiveness, teaching competencies, teacher certification, and the development of policy regarding the challenges posed by the competency-based approach to teacher education. (Author/RK)

Discusses teacher accountability and suggests that teacher educators might take the initiative through encouraging evaluation at a number of levels, through better research, and through more broadly based programs of development. (FL)