Gates Package — page 553

The Eagle County system is impressive because it focuses on helping each teacher grow. The evaluations are used to give a teacher not only a score but also specific feedback on areas to improve and ways to build on their strengths. In addition to one-on-one coaching, Mentors and Masters lead weekly group meetings in which teachers discuss student work and collaborate to spread their skills. Teachers are eligible for annual salary increases and bonuses based on the classroom observations and student achievement. Sandra, the superintendent, said the system has helped retain teachers. Colorado state law mandates that by the 2013-2014 school year, ratings for all teachers should be based half on the change in students' test results and half on other measures. Sandra and her colleagues said they've struggled with how to incorporate student test scores into the evaluation process. One reason: It's harder to test student improvement in some areas--music and art--than in others-- such as math and science. The program also faces challenges from tightening budgets. Mentor and Master Teachers are paid extra, and since a chunk of their time is dedicated to coaching and Melinda and I meeting Sandra Smyser, superintendent of Eagle County Schools, and Greg Doan, principal at Eagle Valley High School (Gypsum, CO, 2012). evaluating, the district needed to bring on other teachers to fill in for them. I found it amazing, though, that even with budget cuts in each of the last two years, Eagle County was able to keep its evaluation and support system intact. The system is likely one reason why student test scores have improved in Eagle County over the past five years. I think the most critical change we can make in U.S. K-12 education is to create teacher feedback systems like the one in Eagle County that are properly funded, high quality, and trusted by teachers. These measurement systems need to provide teachers with the tools to help support their professional development. The lessons from these efforts will help us improve teacher education programs. The countries that have better education systems than the United States provide more teacher feedback than we do today, but I think it is possible to do even better than any country has done so far. The Way Forward The lives of the poorest have improved more rapidly in the last 15 years than ever before, yet I am optimistic that we will do even better in the next 15 years. After all, human knowledge is increasing. We can see this concretely in the invention of new medicines like HIV drugs and the way their prices have come down, and in the creation of new seeds that allow poor farmers to be more productive. Once these tools are invented, they are never un-invented--they just improve. Skeptics point out that we have a hard time delivering new tools to the people who need them. This is where the innovation of using measurement is making big difference. The process I have described--setting clear goals, picking the right approach, and then measuring results to get feedback and refine the approach continually--helps us to deliver tools and services to everybody who will benefit. This innovation to reduce the delivery bottleneck is critical. Following the path of the steam engine long ago, progress isn't "doomed to be rare and erratic" We can, in fact, make it commonplace. 2013 Annual Letter from Bill Gates