Evaluating public school teachers in western Pennsylvania: How and why has it changed since NCLB?
Year: 2009
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: The purpose of this study is to determine whether or not Western Pennsylvania public school districts have changed their teacher evaluation forms since the inception of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. Thirty-eight superintendents from the Tri-State Area School Study Council and the Forum for Western Pennsylvania School Superintendents completed a survey that provided information regarding the teacher evaluation methods used in their school district along with other descriptive data. It was found that 76% of the school districts self-reported that they had changed their teacher evaluation forms since 2001. 71% of the school districts are currently using PDE 426 to evaluate teachers with an Instructional I teaching certificate and 47% of the districts are using PDE 428 to evaluate teachers with an Instructional II teaching certificate. PDE 426 and PDE 428 are teacher evaluation forms that were developed by the Pennsylvania Department of Education in 2003 and are designed around the four domains of Charlotte Danielson's Framework for Teaching. Superintendents stated that the main reasons for implementing these new forms is that they are consistent with quality teaching, they provide a better process of evaluating teachers (compared to the previous model) and they increase student achievement. Union issues and the collective bargaining agreement were identified as the main reason for not adopting these new teacher evaluation forms.
Author: Robert J. Scherrer
Language: English
Subfield: Education
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Quality education
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W20030913