The Structure and Substance of Teachers’ Opportunities to Learn about Teacher Evaluation Reform: Promise or Pitfall for Equity?

ABSTRACT

Despite growing momentum to overhaul teacher evaluation policies and practices, scant research examines how educators at the street level of such reform—principals and teachers—make sense of them, and almost no research examines the implications of current evaluation reforms for equity. This article provides findings based on a study of 14 districts implementing a new teacher evaluation policy in Connecticut. It focuses on how principals shaped teachers’ opportunities to learn about the new policy. We find that the majority of teachers’ opportunities to learn were formal and in whole group or one-on-one formats. We find important differences in the quantity and quality of learning opportunities at the district level, with districts serving greater shares of low-income students, students of color, and English language learners generally offering teachers fewer and lower quality opportunities to learn about the new reform than their counterparts. As such, this article builds on prior research illustrating the potential of new evaluation systems to exacerbate inequities and raises important cautions regarding the extent to which the unprecedented teacher evaluation reforms (currently underway) may exacerbate inequities among school districts.

Funding

This work was supported financially by the Connecticut State Department of Education.

Notes on contributors

Morgaen L. Donaldson is an associate professor of educational leadership at the Neag School of Education and the Director of the Center for Education Policy Analysis at the University of Connecticut. She studies policies and practices related to educator evaluation and development, school leadership, and urban school reform.

Sarah Woulfin is an assistant professor of educational leadership at the University of Connecticut's Neag School of education. Her research applies organizational theory to answer questions about the implementation of instructional policy, particularly in the context of urban districts and schools.

Kimberly LeChasseur is an assistant research professor in the Educational Leadership Department at the University of Connecticut. Her research focuses on how inequitable educational structures are maintained and how educators understand and use evidence to inform their practice.

Casey D. Cobb is a professor of educational leadership at the Neag School of Education. His scholarship focuses on the implementation and consequences of major policies in education, paying particular attention to the implications for equity.

Notes

1. See the rubric at http://www.connecticutseed.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/CCT_Rubric_for_Effective_Teaching-May_2014.pdf

2. Source: http://sdeportal.ct.gov/Cedar/WEB/ct_report/CedarHome.aspx

3. Two excerpts contained examples of both principal-initiated and teacher-initiated opportunities to learn and, as a result, these statistics sum to more than 100%.