On November 17th, more than one hundred parents and students stood on the steps of City Hall to urge the teachers’ union and the Department of Education to agree on a new teacher evaluation system.

Teacher quality matters - extensive research shows that the quality of a student’s teacher is more important than anything else that happens in a school. 

Throughout New York City public schools this week, teachers and engaged families came together to discuss students’ progress and academic standing. As a parent of a NYC public school student and a preschooler attending an early childhood program, I look forward to parent-teacher conferences as one of many vehicles that provides feedback on my children’s development, their strengths and weaknesses, and strategies I can employ at home to support their cognitive and social-emotional growth.

Today, TNTP released a new case study of teacher retention patterns in Washington, D.C. public schools, one of the districts included in its original “Irreplaceables” report. In the last three years, DCPS has radically shifted its approach to teacher evaluation and compensation. The TNTP case study offered powerful evidence that smart policy and determined leadership can materially improve a district’s ability to retain top teachers.

Charter school leader Deborah Kenny’s op-ed in today’s The New York Times argues against the move by many states toward teacher evaluations based on multiple measures, including both student progress on achievement tests and the reviews of principals. She criticizes the evaluation systems, in essence, for being too rigid for a profession as complex as teaching.