Could Voltaire possibly have been talking about teacher evaluation when he penned the phrase "Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good?" Highly doubtful, but nevertheless it's an adage that would serve districts well as they work to develop meaningful teacher evaluation systems. 

The best evaluation systems evolve over time to meet the needs of teachers and administrators. Case in point: Washington, D.C.'s  IMPACT  teacher evaluation instrument. Since its inception in 2009, the district has consistently gathered feedback from teachers, administrators, instructional coaches and master educators. In response to that feedback, the district has created a more streamlined and flexible system that places less emphasis on value-added scores than the original. It is also better suited towards informing important career decisions and advancing the professional development of teachers, which is always a crucial component of teacher evaluation. The chart below outlines some of the more notable changes.

To keep up with the changes that many districts have been making to their evaluation systems, you can take a look at the evaluation instruments we've collected in our Tr3 database. We're curious to see how these systems will evolve as they're put into use.