Constructing teacher effectiveness in policymaking conversations

Abstract

State teacher evaluation policies codify definitions of what it means to teach, what teachers are expected to do, and which ways of teaching and learning are to be encouraged or resisted by articulating a set of values for classroom teaching and student learning. By identifying tools and approaches for the measurement of teaching quality, such policies inscribe particular definitions of teacher effectiveness-a construct that has often been debated and reconstituted over the history of research and evaluation in US public schools. In this chapter, I analyze transcripts from the Teacher Evaluation Advisory Committee meetings in Tennessee, an influential case of teacher evaluation policymaking within which the discourses of evaluation and effectiveness policies can be examined.