Sarah Lenhoff, associate professor and researcher for the College of Education in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies, quoted in Bridge, “10 years of strict teacher evaluations haven’t boosted learning in Michigan”
Bridge, 12/14
10 years of strict teacher evaluations haven’t boosted learning in Michigan
By Ron French
In 2011, Michigan implemented a tough new teacher evaluation system in which educators’ annual job reviews were based partly on the standardized test scores of their students. The plan seemed straight-forward: Reward good teachers, weed out bad ones and Michigan’s moribund learning would improve. A decade later, that experiment is generally considered a failure by educators, policymakers and researchers, and there’s an effort now to change the state’s teacher evaluation system, or at least pause it, until schools return to normal after the pandemic. Before the reform, determining which teachers were superstars was nearly impossible, because virtually all teachers were rated as effective. The teacher accountability measures were seen as a way to allow schools – and families – to distinguish great teachers from the average ones. “It was seen as a potential reform that could make a big difference and improve equitable outcomes,” said Sarah Lenhoff, associate professor of educational leadership at Wayne State University. “It was bipartisan, and had broad support from the education advocacy community.”