The increase in demand for college and career ready students has driven the need for education reform to ensure K-12 schools can support student learning across all content areas and grade levels. A STEM Certification process was established by the Georgia Department of Education as part of an effort to reform public school STEM education.…

Results from a sample of 1,013 Georgia principals who rated 12,617 teachers are used to compare holistic and analytic principal judgments with indicators of student growth central to the state's teacher evaluation system. Holistic principal judgments were compared to mean student growth percentiles (MGPs) and analytic judgments from a formal…

As States and districts implement educator evaluation systems that include measures of student growth, one of the challenges they face is identifying measures for non-tested grades and subjects. Using student learning objectives (SLOs) is one promising approach to addressing this challenge. This brief describes the key elements and challenges of…

"Race to the Top"(RTT) asks that states "design and implement rigorous, transparent, and fair evaluation systems for teachers and principals that differentiate effectiveness using multiple rating categories that take into account data on student growth…as a significant factor." In its definition of student growth, RTT makes the…