Teacher Effectiveness

Introduction

Goal & Strategies*

Teachers are actively dedicated to providing high-quality instruction and effective learning experiences for all children, PreK-3rd grade.

Focus on Instruction

Focus on Instruction

Teachers’ professional education and development are focused on effectively supporting children’s language/reading, math, social, and emotional development; and on differentiating instruction for all young learners.

Example Implementation Indicators

District Administrators/Community Leaders

• Invest in a systematic approach to teacher professional development that is grounded in child development and focused on effective instruction.

Principals/Site Administrators

• Enact and support cross-sector and cross-grade professional development opportunities for teachers that reflect best practices.
• Ensure that the majority of teachers’ annual professional development is informed by current research and student-based data, focused on effective instruction, and structured to build collaborative relationships among teachers.

Teachers

• Demonstrate effective support of children’s language/reading, math, and social and emotional development.
• Demonstrate increased effectiveness in responding to individual children’s development and learning needs.
• Demonstrate leadership in identifying, delivering, and evaluating timely content for their own professional development.

Visible Practice

Visible Practice

Observations of classroom practices are regularly used to assess and improve teachers’ effectiveness in creating high-quality instructional, social, and emotional climates.

Example Implementation Indicators

Principals/Site Administrators

• Use observational tools to assess teacher practices and effectiveness and provide constructive feedback to teachers on areas of strength and improvement.
• Support teachers in improving their practices.
• Provide release time and other supports for teachers to observe each others’ classrooms.

Teachers

• Use observational tools to observe each other’s classroom practices and effectiveness, to identify areas of disconnect, and to provide peer-to-peer feedback.
• Perceive feedback received (from principals and other teachers) on instructional effectiveness to be constructive and supportive.
• Use feedback received to improve their practice.

Work as Teams

Work as Teams

Teachers work as teams, both horizontally and vertically, to improve instruction and effectiveness in the classroom.

Example Implementation Indicators

Principals/Site Administrators

• Demonstrate innovative efforts to create and standardize time for school- and community-based teachers to work together across different daily, weekly, quarterly, and school year calendars.
• Have evidence that teacher instruction and effectiveness are improving over time.

Teachers

• Engage with their peers to assess, reflect on, and improve their own teaching practices.
• Have instructional coaches and mentors with whom they interact regularly.
• Demonstrate a shared language about student learning.
• Demonstrate common and cohesive instructional practices (across classrooms) that are developmentally appropriate and differentiated to meet the needs of all children.
• Demonstrate knowledge of instructional practices across the full PreK-3rd grade continuum, not just the age/grade-level for which they are responsible.

Resources

Continuing Education

Evidence Based Education
Click Here

Focus on Instruction

Links

Effective Teaching and Learning
Click Here for ASCD website or http://www.ascd.org/research-a-topic/Effective-Teaching/home.aspx

Measures of Effective Teaching (MET Project)
Click Here

Measuring Teacher Effectiveness: A Resource for Teachers, Administrators, Policymakers, and Parents
Click Here, RAND Education

Promoting Teacher Effectiveness and Professional Learning
Click Here, Charlotte Danielson, The Danielson Group

Literature

Doing What Works: Connecting the Dots: Linking Teacher Evaluation and Professional Learning
Click Here, Produced by WestEd for the U.S. Department of Education

Feedback for Better Teaching: Nine Principles for Using Measures of Effective Teaching
Click Here for document, from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Measures of Effective Teaching (MET) project.

Improving Academic Outcomes for Disadvantaged Students: Scaling Up Individualized Tutorials
Click Here, Brookings

Lasting Legacy for Achievement: Colorado Coaches Boost Teacher Effectiveness with a Rubric for Professional Learning
Click Here, Journal of Staff Development, 33 (5), 36-45

Qualities of Effective Teachers
Click Here, James Stronge

Research finds troubling teacher-assignment patterns within schools
Click Here, Rachel O'Brien,Center for Education Policy Analysis

Webinars & Videos

Learning from the Experts: A Discussion of Effective Teaching Practices
Robert J. Marzano and James H. Stronge
Click Here, from ASCD

Looking Inside Classrooms: Teacher Effectiveness
Click Here, The PreK-3rd Grade National Work Group

Teacher Effectiveness: Where Policy and Practice Meet
Click Here, Charolotte Danielson and ASCD

Math

Math

Development and Research in Early Math Education
Click Here, DREME Network, Stanford

Minnesota Examples

Minnesota Examples

Presentations

Presentations

Research

Research

Go to Research & Studies

Visible Practice

Links

Tennessee Educator Acceleration Model (TEAM)
Click Here

Literature

An Ocean of Unknowns: Risks and Opportunities in Using Student Achievement Data to Evaluate PreK-3rd Grade Teachers
Click Here, Laura A. Bornfreund, New America Foundation, May 21, 2013

Evaluating Early Childhood Educators: Prekindergarten Through Third Grade
Click Here, Center on Great Teachers & Leaders at American Institutes for Research and CEELO

Tools

Stronge Teacher Effectiveness Performance Evaluation System: Handbook, 2012-13
Click Here, Stronge and Associate Educational Consulting

Work as Teams

Links

Partners in Action: A Mentoring Toolkit for Early Childhood Providers
Click Here, from the Texas Early Learning Council at UTHealth’s Children’s Learning Institute (2013)

Peer Learning Community Guide
Click Here or http://ceelo.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/ceelo_fast_fact_plc_guide.pdf

Literature

Building a Learning Community: A Tale of Two Schools
Click Here, Mindich, D., & Lieberman, A. (2012), Stanford, CA. Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education.

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* Kauerz, K. & Coffman, J. (2013). Framework for Planning, Implementing, and Evaluating PreK-3rd Grade Approaches. Seattle, WA: College of Education, University of Washington.