Professional Development: Wisconsin

Analysis of Wisconsin's policies

Wisconsin does not have state-level policy that connects professional development to teachers' evaluations.

Recommendations for Wisconsin

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, Wisconsin 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 aim of increasing their effectiveness in the classroom. Wisconsin should ensure that districts utilize teacher evaluation results in determining professional development needs and activities.

State response to our analysis

Wisconsin recognized the factual accuracy of this analysis. The state also noted that the State Superintendent convened a Design Team on Educator Effectiveness in 2010, which is charged with developing an evaluation framework that delivers information for informing professional development.