The Hechinger Report has partnered with The Commercial Appeal in Memphis to investigate how new legislation requiring more rigorous evaluation of teachers is changing education in the state.
Memphis’ new teacher evaluation system adopted from controversial D.C. program
Washington, D.C. launched a controversial new teacher evaluation system two years ago that overhauled how teachers are rated and led to the firings of 7 percent of the teaching force—more than 280 people. The new evaluations roiled the city; 80 percent of D.C. teachers believe it was not an “effective way to evaluate the performance” [...]
Using value-added data to evaluate Tennessee teachers
To close the achievement gap between poor and affluent students in Tennessee, some students may need to learn at double the rate of their high-performing peers, according to Tennessee Department of Education materials. But this goal could create a potential Catch-22 for teachers, who for the first time this year will be measured—and rated—on whether [...]
New teacher evaluation systems in Tennessee have rough road ahead
Rebecca Sellers, an eighth-grade English teacher at the Lester Pre-K-8 school in Memphis, looked wary as she walked into the teachers’ lounge on a Monday afternoon last fall. The previous week, the school’s assistant principal, Isaac Robinson, had dropped in, unannounced, to watch Sellers teach as part of Tennessee’s new evaluation system.Now he was about [...]
