This study aimed to identify essential attributes a principal must possess to impact teachers' instructional performance, resulting in student achievement. Principal self-efficacy is a phenomenon explored in the relevance of impact on teacher performance. However, this research sought to discover specific attributes, characteristics, and behaviors…

Job satisfaction has long been discussed as an important factor determining individual behavior at work. To what extent this relationship is also evident in the teaching profession is especially relevant given the manifold job tasks and tremendous responsibility teachers bear for the development of their students. From a theoretical perspective,…

The purpose of this article is to examine social cognitive theory and social comparison theory, and how they are integrated to propose that self-efficacy mediates the relationship between leader-member exchange social comparison (LMXSC) and performance. Furthermore, the article supports the need for development and examination of the effects of…

Houston Independent School District (HISD) strives to provide an equitable education to all its students. To uphold the district's mission, the Teacher Appraisal and Development System (TADS) was designed with the goal of promoting effective teaching by providing systematic, rigorous feedback on teacher effectiveness in the classroom. Through the…

Houston Independent School District (HISD) strives to provide an equitable education to all its students. To uphold the district's mission, the Teacher Appraisal and Development System (TADS) was designed with the goal of promoting effective teaching by providing systematic, rigorous feedback on teacher effectiveness in the classroom. Through the…

The federal Race to the Top initiative signified a shift in American education policy whereby accountability efforts moved from the school to the teacher level. Using administrative data from Tennessee, we explore whether evaluation reforms differentially influenced mobility patterns for teachers of varying effectiveness. We find that the rollout…

Research has shown that "last hired, first fired" policies maximize the number of teachers subject to reductions in force by eliminating those teachers that are lowest on the pay scale first. Until now, advocates of effectiveness-based reduction-in-force (RIF) policies could only point to simulated policy exercises as evidence of the…

The effect of evaluation on employee performance is traditionally studied in the context of the principal-agent problem. Evaluation can, however, also be characterized as an investment in the evaluated employee's human capital. We study a sample of mid-career public school teachers where we can consider these two types of evaluation effect…

In recent months a number of states, such as Tennessee, have considered tying teacher evaluations and tenure to student achievement as part of their Race to the Top plans. This research brief evaluates how well early-career performance signals teacher effectiveness after tenure. The brief presents selected findings from a larger study using North…

After spending decades introducing curriculum and instructional programs with little to show in the way of student achievement results, the District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS), under the leadership of Chancellor Michelle Rhee, decided to shift its focus. Emphasizing what to teach had yielded few results. Dogged by its standing as perhaps…

Teachers are the single most important school-related factor in students' learning, and improving student learning is the single most important goal at Achievement First (AF), a fast-growing public charter school network in the Northeast. To achieve this goal, the AF team has worked to establish a common understanding of effective instructional…

In partnership with the Urban League of Greater Miami, the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) released "Teacher Quality Roadmap: Improving Policies and Practices in Miami," an in-depth study of the work rules Miami-Dade teachers. This look at the state of teacher policies in Miami-Dade County Public Schools explores the…

The authors detail their summer long pointed discussion with the Obama Administration--via an exchange of letters and telephone conversations--over initiatives in New York and other states that tie the evaluations of teachers and principals to student performance on standardized tests. The authors assert such initiatives should await further…

Hillsborough County Public Schools has launched a teacher evaluation system that has attracted attention from educators and policy makers across the country. Centralized, collaborative, communications-driven and adaptable are key characteristics of Hillsborough's approach. The system consists of two main components: observation of instruction and…

When proposing performance pay for teachers, reformers first must answer three questions: What is the definition of teacher performance? What is the definition of student performance? and What are the goals of schooling? Reformers also need to examine the assumptions that guide their proposals and prepare to deal with the implementation issues…