Professional Development: North Carolina

Retaining Effective Teachers Policy

Goal

The state should require professional development to be based on needs identified through teacher evaluations.

Meets goal
Suggested Citation:
National Council on Teacher Quality. (2011). Professional Development: North Carolina results. State Teacher Policy Database. [Data set].
Retrieved from: https://www.nctq.org/yearbook/state/NC-Professional-Development-9

Analysis of North Carolina's policies

North Carolina requires that teachers are provided with feedback following a classroom observation and at the end of the school year in the summary evaluation conference. During the summary evaluation conference, the principal and teacher discuss "the teacher's self-assessment, the teacher's most recent Professional Growth Plan, the components of the North Carolina Teacher Evaluation Process completed during the year, classroom observations, artifacts submitted or collected during the evaluation process and other evidence of the teacher's performance on the Rubric."

The state also specifies that findings shared during the summary evaluation conference should be used to inform teachers' professional development plans. 

Citation

Recommendations for North Carolina

State response to our analysis

North Carolina recognized the factual accuracy of this analysis.

Research rationale

For evidence of the benefits of feedback from evaluation systems, and the potential for professional development surrounding that feedback, see T. Kane et al, "Evaluating Teacher Effectiveness." Education Next. Vol 11, No. 3 (2011); E. Taylor and J. Tyler, "The Effect of Evaluation on Performance: Evidence from Longitudinal Student Achievement Data of Mid-Career Teachers." National Bureau of Economic Research (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, "Middle School Mathematics Professional Development Impact Study: Findings After the Second Year of Implementation." Institute of Education Sciences (2011).

For additional evidence regarding best practices for professional development, see "The Deliver, Financing, and Assessment of Professional Development in Education: Pre-Service Preparation and In-Service Training." The Finance Project (2003).