Frequency of Evaluations : Tennessee

Identifying Effective Teachers Policy

Goal

The state should require annual evaluations of all teachers.

Meets goal
Suggested Citation:
National Council on Teacher Quality. (2011). Frequency of Evaluations : Tennessee results. State Teacher Policy Database. [Data set].
Retrieved from: https://www.nctq.org/yearbook/state/TN-Frequency-of-Evaluations--8

Analysis of Tennessee's policies

Commendably, all teachers in Tennessee must now be evaluated at least annually. As part of the state's process, nonprobationary (professional) teachers are observed four times annually. New (apprentice) teachers are observed six times annually. These observations are equally distributed across the two semesters. Following each observation, a post-observation conference is scheduled to discuss performance. 

Citation

Recommendations for Tennessee

State response to our analysis

Tennessee was helpful in providing NCTQ with the facts necessary for this analysis.

Research rationale

For the frequency of evaluations in government and private industry, see survey results from Hudson Employment Index's report: "Pay and Performance in America: 2005 Compensation and Benefits Report" Hudson Highlands Group (2005).

For research emphasizing the importance of evaluation and observations for new teachers in predicting future success and providing support for teachers see, D. Staiger and J. Rockoff, "Searching for Effective Teachers with Imperfect Information." The Journal of Economic Perspectives. (24:3) American Economic Association (2010).