Offers six guidelines for the building principal to follow in evaluating teachers. The guidelines include keeping evaluation criteria in mind when hiring teachers, focusing on evaluation during inservice training, establishing a regular pattern of classroom visits, and providing teachers with opportunities for self-evaluation. (IRT)

In 1983, 26 states have statutes or regulations that require teachers to be evaluated, and 22 of these states also require administrators to be evaluated. (MLF)

Research on teacher effectiveness falls into two groups: research on teacher styles and research on teacher competencies. Both neglect the humanistic aspects of teaching. Offers a research overview to assess how well a school system is fulfilling its central mission of successful teaching and learning. (nine references) (MLF)

A recent North Carolina school board's decision to dismiss a tenured teacher was upheld by the courts. Florida's statewide competency exam was also supported by a federal court. (MD)

Describes a teacher "remediation" plan created by the superintendent and the local teacher union. (IRT)

A study of four teacher-evaluation programs--in Tennessee, Texas, Oregon, and Colorado--finds that measures of student learning can be an important source of feedback on the effectiveness of schools, administrators, and teachers. Includes extended description of Tennessee's accountability system that uses test scores in the evaluation of teachers.…

Recounts one school system's attempt to impose competency tests on its teachers and discusses the experience of other districts with standarized tests for teachers and teacher applicants. (IRT)

In most cases excellent teachers are made. School boards have to establish a climate that offers job satisfaction, that reduces some of the tensions and frustrations inherent in the job, and that recognizes teachers as people who want to learn to do their job better. (Author/IRT)

Many schools are trying new teacher evaluation designs, such as some Wyoming districts' 360-degree feedback model that elicits input from students, peer teachers, principals, parents, student achievement data, and teacher self-evaluations. Rochester schools have crafted a parent survey. Columbia, South Carolina, high school teachers are setting…

A reduction in force (RIF) policy not exclusively based on seniority includes appeal procedures and provisions for teachers nearing retirement. A point system determines RIF order: supervisors assess teachers' planning and organization, instructional techniques, classroom and school environment, and professional attitude. Education, teaching…

Outlines the conflict surrounding a superintendent's attempt to install a rating system that would reward some nontenured teachers and result in others being fired. A similar system is being used on administrators and classified personnel. (IRT)

Judges teachers on three criteria: firmness, friendliness, and fairness. (Author/IRT)

The American Federal of Teachers' president, Albert Ahanker, advocates forming a board of leading educators to develop a national qualifying examination of those newly entering the teaching profesion. The test would cover subject matter knowledge and instructional potential. Public pressure would ensure that states and districts adopted the…