The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) includes more than $100 billion to invest in education. By the end of March, $44 billion will be available to states with an additional $49 billion available between summer and fall 2009. To access the full share of funds available, states must provide assurance that funds will be used to advance core reforms identified by the federal government. Two of these core reforms are aimed at improving teacher quality.
Guidance released by the U.S. Department of Education last week spelled out more details about what is expected in return for the taxpayers’ investment. Teacher evaluation systems have been targeted as one area in need of reform to improve teacher quality. Traditionally the province of states and local districts, the Education Department wants to collect data on the effectiveness of teacher evaluations as a condition of receiving funds.
To receive funding available in the second stage, states will have to report for each district the number and percentage of teachers and principals scoring at each performance level on local teacher and principal evaluation instruments. The purpose of this new reporting is to lay out baseline data on the state of current teacher evaluation systems and identify whether they incorporate some measure of student achievement. Gathering the information is expected to shine a spotlight on school systems that are not working well and drive improvement. Reporting templates are being developed for use by states to capture the required information.
