Gates Package — page 552

Starting in 2009, the foundation funded a project called Measures of Effective Teaching, or MET, that worked with 3,000 classroom teachers to better understand how to build an evaluation and feedback system to help teachers improve. In January 2013, we announced the final results of the MET project. The report concluded that there were observable, repeatable, and verifiable ways of measuring teacher effectiveness. MET highlighted several measures that schools should use to assess teacher performance, including student surveys and reports from trained evaluators who observe teachers at work. Colorado is a pioneer in introducing these principles, and Eagle County is helping lead the way. About 10 years ago the district threw out its traditional ---- Discussing class work with students at South High School (Denver, CO, 2012). seniority-based evaluation system and moved to a performance-based one. It didn't go over well. Teachers spoke out against what they thought was a flawed plan with too much emphasis on student tests and too little support from the district--among other concerns. By 2008 the majority of the district's central office had changed, and the school board had hired a new superintendent, Dr. Sandra Smyser, whom we met on our trip. Fourth-grade teacher Courtney Artis, whose class is part of the MET project, talking with a student at Cornelius Elementary School (Corneltus, NC, 2012). Now teachers feel the system helps them improve. Over the course of a school year, each of Eagle County's 470 teachers is evaluated three times and is observed in class at least nine times. The process starts with Mentor Teachers, who spend 30 percent of their time observing their colleagues in their classrooms and coaching them in areas that need improvement. Then a Master Teacher and the principal observe classes, some with advance notice, others unannounced. Master Teachers, who dedicate 70 percent of their time to this work, hold conferences with the teacher before each planned evaluation and give feedback afterwards.