Washington – As states begin to roll out new systems for teacher evaluation, institutions of higher learning should position themselves to be partners in the process and incorporate the new measures into their teacher prep programs.
That was one of the key takeaways from a panel discussion at the Center for American Progress Tuesday titled “The State of Teacher Evaluation Reform: State Education Agency Capacity and the New Teacher Evaluation Systems.”
Forum speaker Patrick McGuinn, associate professor of political science and education at Drew University, said teacher evaluation systems represent the next “big frontier” in education reform.
“This is hard, complicated work,” said McGuinn, who released a paper Tuesday that provides an overview of where half a dozen states stand with respect to their efforts to implement new teacher evaluation systems.
It is also relatively new.
In his paper, McGuinn maintains that “not enough communication and sharing of information about effective measures is happening yet,” and that state education agencies must perform a “delicate balancing act” to fulfill their dual roles of providing support and monitoring for compliance.
McGuinn’s paper, which comes at a time when the Obama administration has focused increased attention on issues of teacher quality, examines teacher evaluation systems in Tennessee, Colorado, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Rhode Island, which are all “early adopters” in the area of teacher evaluation reform.
