Including Students With Disabilities and English Learners in Measures of Educator Effectiveness

This report provides an overview of the challenges of accounting for students with disabilities (SWDs) and English learners (ELs) in the evaluation of mainstream teachers. It focuses on the two prominent indicators of teaching quality—classroom observations and value-added scores. The report begins by describing each indicator and outlining the specific challenges related to the inclusion of SWDs and ELs in mainstream teacher evaluation.

The report makes recommendations for states and districts to ensure that teacher evaluation systems adequately and fairly account for these students. Finally, the authors, all from the Educational Testing Service, provide researchers with a set of recommendations for improving the evidence base surrounding the validity of teacher evaluation measures with regard to SWDs and ELs.