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 Iowa from the State of the States 2022: Teacher and Principal Evaluation Policies report.
Evaluation Feedback: Iowa does not have state-level policy requiring that teachers receive feedback from their evaluations.
Professional Development: Iowa requires that teachers develop individual professional development plans "in cooperation with the teacher's evaluator."
Improvement Plans: Iowa requires intensive assistance plans for teachers "not meeting the applicable standards and criteria."
Evaluation Rating Categories: Iowa requires a four-tiered rating system of highly effective, effective, minimally effective and ineffective.
Require that evaluation systems provide teachers with feedback about their performance.
Iowa should require that evaluation systems provide teachers with adequate feedback about strengths and areas that need improvement identified in their evaluations.
Iowa indicated that evaluators in their evaluator training learn, develop, and use feedback skills to identify and support performance development.
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.