Research and Policy: Not Whether, but How: Asking the Right Questions in Teacher Performance Assessment

Despite best intentions, rubrics based on a set of core practices limit what counts as effective instruction to that which can be understood in relation to these practices. Though rubrics for evaluating teacher performance represent a marked improvement from more unidimensional concepts of what counts as good teaching, they are still closed sets. This essay examines the underlying questions of past, present, and future teacher performance assessments and suggests new possibilities for a growth and development orientation based on analysis of existing tools for evaluating teacher quality.