The Department of Education (Education) created Race to The Top (RTT) under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 to provide incentives for states to reform K-12 education in areas such as improving the lowest performing schools and developing effective teachers and leaders. In 2010, Education awarded 12 states nearly $4 billion in…

Teacher evaluation procedures, if ineptly accomplished, are potentially vulnerable to litigation (which most school districts can ill afford), because there is no consensus as to what constitutes effective teaching; hence the validity of rating systems and/or reliability of observations is open to challenge. Accordingly, the evaluation policies…

Reviews judicial decisions involving school staff evaluation systems. Courts remain reluctant to interfere with the summative evaluation process of a school district. Administrators must apply reasoned, ascertainable standards in employment decisions in order to withstand judicial scrutiny amid the array of legal constraints on the evaluation of…

Although the main purpose of a school district's evaluation system is to improve employees' performance, the evaluation procedures and the supporting documentation must also serve as evidence in the termination hearings of an unsatisfactory employee. Accordingly, this chapter provides practical advice to school administrators concerning…

Chapter 14 in a book on school law concerns the legal aspects of evaluating teacher performance. Careful analysis of recent decisions makes it clear the courts will compel uniform standards and unprecedented rigor in teacher evaluation practices. Particularly in the consideration of equitable standards, state and federal courts are relying on…

These guidelines are intended to assist Colorado school districts and boards of cooperative services (BOCS) in developing systems which meet the requirements of the Certificated Personnel Performance Evaluation Act (as amended), which mandates written systems for performance evaluation of all certificated personnel. The guidelines distinguish…

This list of seven standards for teacher educators explains indicators and potential sources of evidence for each standard. The standards are: (1) model professional teaching practices which demonstrate knowledge, skills, and attitudes reflecting the best available practices in teacher education; (2) inquire into and contribute to one or more…

A process policy model that contains a broad range of categories and matrices that can be used to generate questions is used to analyze the development and application of selected segments of the South Carolina Educator Improvement Act. This act is a comprehensive legislative endeavor to upgrade public education in South Carolina. This paper…

This report presents 26 staff development guidelines from California Code of Regulations Title 5, Sections 80680 through 80690.1: to define, implement, and make specific Chapter 1178, Statutes of 1994 (Senate Bill 1969, Hughes). The guidelines are for teachers working with English learners. Category 1, "Guidelines for the Content of Staff…