Routledge Teacher and Student Evaluation: Moving Beyond the Failure of School Reform

Following the recent major school reform of Race to the Top, schools, teachers, and students are increasingly evaluated through high-stakes achievement test scores. In six concise chapters, Teacher and Student Evaluation explores the historical rise and modern landscape of accountability in American education, and the current models of teacher evaluation. The authors provide realistic and useful suggestions for responding to current accountability demands. The authors explore the methodological concerns and policy implications of using value-added and observational measures to make high-stakes decisions. After reaching the conclusion that these contemporary evaluation practices are flawed, Alyson Lavigne and Thomas Good offer possible solutions that inform current and future teacher evaluation. This book is a valuable resource for students of educational assessment as well as policy makers, administrators, and teachers who are currently building accountability plans. The book is written in an accessible but authoritative fashion that practitioners, policymakers, and scholars will find useful. Review “Establishing better systems for evaluating teachers is a key feature of many models of school reform. Lavigne and Good explore how many new ways of conducting teacher evaluations spring from the school reform movement and posit that many of these systems will be the true legacy of reform efforts. … This balanced approach to the subject serves as an excellent resource for the novice and the expert. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readership levels.” - S.T. Schroth, Knox College, in CHOICE, June 2014 "......Lavigne and Good’s book is a welcome examination of a central activity of schools and one type of accountability policy.  Their book provides a jumping off point from which to engage in discussions about the relationship between educational research and policymaking as well as about teacher evaluation policies and practices." - Stacey Rutledge,Florida State University, Teachers College Record About the Author Alyson Leah Lavigne is Assistant Professor of Curriculum Studies at Roosevelt University, US. Thomas L. Good is Professor and Head of Educational Psychology at the University of Arizona, US.