On July 8, 2015 the House of Representatives passed the Student Success Act. The act sets five broad parameters that states or school districts may include in any teacher evaluation system. This approach gives greater flexibility to school districts or states to develop teacher evaluation systems that best meet the specific needs of their teachers and students. Those optional parameters include:

 

1.  Making student achievement data, derived from a variety of sources, a significant part of the evaluation

 

2.  Using multiple measures of evaluation in assessing teacher performance

 

3.  Having more than two rating categories for the performance of teachers

 

4.  Making personnel decisions based on the evaluations, as determined by the district

 

5.  Seeking input from parents, teachers, school leaders, and other staff in the school in developing the    

 

      evaluation system

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Deficiency to measure teacher quality, inability to differentiate between effective and ineffective instructors, and the lack of development of a highly skilled teacher workforce are the failings of current evaluation systems (Toch & Rothman, 2008). 

 

Research has shown that the greatest influence on student success is the quality of his or her teacher and quality teaching is the result of quality professional development and teacher training (Stronge, 2013, Ebert-May, Derting, Henkel, Maher, Momsen, Arnold & Passmore, 2015). Finally, quality professional development is informed by comprehensive and effective teacher evaluation systems (Bates, Swennen & Jones, 2014).  If an evaluation system is flawed, it may directly affect what professional development is offered, what a teacher will focus on for his or her practice, and thus, can ultimately affect student achievement in the classroom.

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