Teacher Evaluation Designs in an External Accountability Environmen

In the 2012--13 school year, all districts in New York State were required to revise teacher evaluations in accordance with the passage of new legislation. Changing the processes and formats of teacher evaluations is challenging work as it impacts critical and essential functions in schools. The complexity of the task becomes even more difficult when state aid and teacher ratings are tied to approval of district APPR plans, as was done in New York State. Although APPR plans were highly regulated, districts had some discretion in the determination of classroom observation procedures and student assessments used for linking student and teacher performance. APPR plans, examined in this study, are the first response to the new law and as such, provide an opportunity to examine differences in district adaption to the accountability reform immediately following enactment of legislation.;The first phase of this study will examine how components of district APPR plans varied. Researchers and policymakers have become increasingly interested in the use of multiple measures in systems for teacher evaluations (Peterson, 2004). They argue that using student-achievement growth measures and classroom observations may be more reliable in predicting teacher effectiveness than the use of single measure approaches (Tyler et al, 2010). However, little research has focused on models for multiple component evaluations or alignment and integration of components. Without such information, evaluations may not be reliable or valid for their intended purpose (Kyriakides, Demetriou, and Charalambos, 2006). The second part of this study will examine patterns within and between components of teacher evaluations. As the use of multiple component evaluations increase, it is important that the components are integrated and that the evaluation design is cohesive.;Recent research on teacher evaluation typologies has focused on developing models that provide frameworks for aligning design and purpose. Models by Stronge (2006) and Chen and Tsui (1999) examine expanding teacher roles and base the design of teacher evaluations on demonstration of effectiveness in those roles. A third part of this study will use the empirical results from bivariate analyses of district APPR plans to construct a typology. Using this typology, the final part of this study will examine APPR plan alignment with districts with varying characteristics.;This study will contribute to an understanding of district designed teacher evaluation plans in response to an externally imposed accountability reform initiative. Complex and challenging variations related to school district organizational contexts and teacher and student characteristics are likely to influence variations in the APPR designs. Comparing district designs to a typology of teacher evaluation models will provide a better understanding of patterns and differences in the conceptualization of district designed APPR plans.