Learning About Teaching: Initial Findings from Measures of the Teacher Effectiveness Project

In most public school districts, individual teachers receive little feedback on the work they do. Almost everywhere, teacher evaluation is a perfunctory exercise. In too many schools principals go through the motions of visiting classrooms, checklist in hand. In the end, virtually all teachers receive the same “satisfactory” rating. Thomas Kane, et al, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, January 2011