Examining the Effectiveness and Implications of Teacher Evaluation Policy in Memphis and the State of Tennessee

Abstract

Since the 1980's, a growing network of those invested in the debate over reforming public education in the United States has consistently pushed for the development and implementation of teacher evaluation systems based heavily on student standardized testing data. Twenty-three states now require or recommend that student achievement data comprise half of a teacher's evaluation score. As a result of this "sea change" in policy, researchers have come to identify data-based teacher evaluations as essential components of the "ideology of school reform." By 2010, Memphis was positioned to serve as a model of rigorous teacher evaluation design for the rest of the country. A partnership with the Gates Foundation, inclusion in the Measures of Effective Teaching study and support from state officials completing Tennessee's Race to the Top proposal produced a system which scores teachers largely on the basis of student achievement data and classroom observations by principals. In its third year, the evaluation framework has garnered national attention and now applies countrywide as a result of the recent merger with Shelby County Schools. The system, however, is highly controversial with teachers, who see test scores as unstable measures of their contribution to student learning. Examining district evaluation data and utilizing surveys, interviews and focus group discussions with teachers, this paper offers a preliminary assessment of the effectiveness of this evaluation framework and its implications for teaching and learning in inner city schools, both in Memphis and more generally.