Professional Development: Alabama
Retaining Effective Teachers Policy
Analysis of Alabama's policies
According to training materials for Alabama's teacher evaluation system EDUCATE Alabama, all elements of the evaluation become archived and are available to be viewed by the teacher.
As part of Alabama's teacher evaluation system, the state requires each educator to develop a professional learning plan, which is created via a dialogue between the teacher and instructional leader and must be based on the Educator Self Assessment. The state does not specify that professional development activities must be aligned with findings from teacher evaluations, nor does Alabama mandate that teachers rated less than effective receive targeted professional improvement plans.
Recommendations for Alabama
Require that evaluation systems provide teachers with feedback about their performance.
In order to increase their effectiveness in the classroom, teachers need to receive feedback on strengths and areas that need improvement identified in their evaluations. As such, Alabama should require that evaluation systems provide teachers with feedback about their classroom performance.
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. While Alabama has taken steps in the right direction by requiring that all teachers develop professional learning plans, the state 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 be 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.
State response to our analysis
Alabama recognized the factual accuracy of this analysis.
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Alabama
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Delivering Well Prepared Teachers
- Admission into Teacher Preparation
- Elementary Teacher Preparation
- Elementary Teacher Preparation in Reading Instruction
- Elementary Teacher Preparation in Mathematics
- Early Childhood
- Middle School Teacher Preparation
- Secondary Teacher Preparation
- Secondary Teacher Preparation in Science and Social Studies
- Special Education Teacher Preparation
- Special Education Preparation in Reading
- Assessing Professional Knowledge
- Student Teaching
- Teacher Preparation Program Accountability
Expanding the Pool of Teachers
Identifying Effective Teachers
- State Data Systems
- Evaluation of Effectiveness
- Frequency of Evaluations
- Tenure
- Licensure Advancement
- Equitable Distribution
Retaining Effective Teachers
Exiting Ineffective Teachers
Pensions
Research rationale
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. 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.
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.
Professional Development: Supporting Research
For
evidence of the benefits of feedback from evaluation systems, and the potential
for professional development surrounding that feedback, see T. Kane, E. Taylor, J. Tyler, and A. Wooten, "Evaluating Teacher Effectiveness." Education
Next, Volume 11, No. 3, Summer 2011; E. Taylor and J. Tyler, "The Effect of Evaluation on Performance: Evidence from Longitudinal Student Achievement Data of Mid-Career Teachers," NBER Working Paper No. 16877, March 2011.
Much
professional development, particularly those that are not aligned to specific
feedback from teacher evaluations, has been found to be ineffective. For evidence see M. Garet, A. Wayne, F. Stancavage, J. Taylor, M. Eaton, K.
Walters, M. Song, S. Brown, S. Hurlburt, P. Zhu, S. Sepanik, F. Doolittle, and E. Warner, "Middle School Mathematics Professional Development Impact Study: Findings After the Second Year of Implementation." Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, May 2011, NCEE 2011-4024.
For
additional evidence regarding best practices for professional development, see K. Neville and C. Robinson, "The Delivery, Financing, and Assessment of Professional Development in Education: Pre-Service Preparation and In-Service Training" The Finance Project, 2003.