Teacher and Principal Evaluation Policy
The data and analysis on this page is from 2019. View and download the most recent policy data and analysis on Linking Evaluation to Professional Growth in Alabama from the State of the States 2022: Teacher and Principal Evaluation Policies report.
Evaluation Feedback: Alabama does not require that teachers receive feedback following an evaluation.
Professional Development: Alabama does not specify that professional development activities must be aligned with findings from teacher evaluations.
Improvement Plans: Alabama does not require that teachers rated less-than-effective receive targeted professional improvement plans.
Evaluation Rating Categories: Alabama's evaluation system does not require more than two rating categories.
Require that evaluation systems provide teachers with feedback about their performance.
Alabama should require that evaluation systems provide teachers with adequate feedback about strengths and areas that need improvement identified in their evaluations.
Ensure that professional development is aligned with findings from teachers' evaluations.
Professional development that is not informed by evaluation results may be of little value to teachers' professional growth and the aim of increasing their effectiveness in the classroom. Alabama should ensure that districts utilize teacher evaluation results in determining professional development needs and activities.
Ensure that teachers receiving less-than-effective ratings are placed on a professional improvement plan.
Alabama should adopt a policy requiring that teachers who receive even one less-than-effective
evaluation rating are placed on structured improvement plans. These plans
should focus on performance areas that directly connect to student learning and
should identify noted deficiencies, define specific action steps necessary to
address these deficiencies, and describe how and when progress will be
measured.
Utilize rating categories that meaningfully differentiate among various levels of teacher performance.
To ensure that the evaluation instrument accurately differentiates among levels of teacher performance, Alabama should require districts to utilize multiple rating categories, such as highly effective, effective, needs improvement and ineffective. A binary system that merely categorizes teachers as satisfactory or unsatisfactory is inadequate.
Alabama included the official memorandum that directly addresses this analysis. It reads: "Each teacher evaluation process should include a teacher self-assessment (linked to the Alabama Quality Teaching Standards), a Professional Learning Plan (PLP), evidence of professional learning, and observations by an instructional leader with feedback to the teacher."
Alabama should strengthen its policy so that it ensures that evaluation systems provide teachers with adequate feedback about the results of their evaluations.
7D: Linking Evaluation to Professional Growth
Professional development should be connected to needs identified through teacher evaluations. The goal of teacher evaluation systems should be not just to identify highly effective teachers and those who underperform but to help all teachers improve. Even highly effective teachers may have areas where they can continue to grow and develop their knowledge and skills.[1] Rigorous evaluations should provide actionable feedback on teachers' strengths and weaknesses that can form the basis of professional development activities. Too often professional development is random rather than targeted to the identified needs of individual teachers. Failure to make the connection between evaluations and professional development squanders the likelihood that professional development will be meaningful.[2]
Many states are only explicit about tying professional development plans to evaluation results if the evaluation results are bad. Good evaluations with meaningful feedback should be useful to all teachers, and if done right should help design professional development plans for all teachers—not just those who receive poor ratings.[3]
To further increase the utility and validity of evaluation systems, states should require that evaluation instruments differentiate among various levels of teacher performance rather than only giving binary satisfactory/unsatisfactory ratings. Binary rating systems often offer little meaning because virtually all teachers receive satisfactory ratings.[4] More rating categories allow for more nuanced distinctions between levels of teacher performance.