Effective teaching matters. So does effective school leadership. Growing awareness of these facts at both state and district levels is driving national momentum to redesign how teacher and principal effectiveness is assessed, supported and rewarded. The Community Training and Assistance Center (CTAC) works with states, districts and unions to design, implement and assess new evaluation systems.

CTAC has a successful track record of developing new evaluation systems that are fair, transparent and manageable. Our focus is to improve professional practice, link student academic growth to educator performance, and ensure accountability.

In developing teacher and principal evaluation systems CTAC focuses on a range of critical elements that are customized to each district’s needs:

  • Engaging key stakeholder groups in design and implementation
  • Establishing a system of multiple measures that are valid, reliable and credible
  • Ensuring alignment with Common Core, industry and other standards
  • Determining appropriate weightings and cut scores
  • Projecting fiscal and human resources needed to sustain the new evaluation system
  • Linking the new evaluation system to professional development and leadership development
  • Identifying and addressing relevant collective bargaining issues
  • Designing, if desired, an evaluation system aligned with performance-based compensation
  • Developing, upon request, teacher career ladders as part of the evaluation system
  • Analyzing the effectiveness of the new teacher evaluation system

In addition to working with states, districts and unions, CTAC serves as a technical expert on teacher and principal evaluation systems to the U.S. Department of Education in its support to Race to the Top (RTTT) states and states with approved ESEA flexibility requests. CTAC also shares expertise with states and districts on developing growth measures in both tested and non-tested grades and subject areas for teacher evaluation systems.

See examples of our experience