Teacher Evaluations: Implementation and Impact of Race to the Top

The Race to the Top (RTT) initiative encouraged states to implement education policies in six core areas, including teacher evaluations. This brief describes the alignment of states’ teacher evaluation policies with the Race to the Top initiative as of spring 2012.

Key findings include:

- States reported requiring less than half of eight teacher evaluation policies aligned with RTT priorities, although the number of policies required by RTT states was higher than non-RTT states.
- States’ reported teacher evaluation policies were most aligned with RTT priorities on using multiple measures to evaluate teacher performance (30 states), using multiple rating categories to classify teacher performance (31 states), and conducting annual evaluations (25 states).
- States’ reported teacher evaluation policies were least aligned with RTT priorities on using evaluation results to inform decisions regarding career advancement (1 state) and compensation (5-6 states).

Findings are based on interviews with administrators from 49 states and the District of Columbia.