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New Teacher-Evaluation Systems Face Obstacles

Stimulus funds require districts to revamp teacher yardsticks.

Buoyed by the promise of federal funding and a burgeoning dialogue about teacher effectiveness, districts are beginning to overhaul their evaluation systems to provide more finely grained information on teacher performance.

Among the places considering, piloting, or implementing teacher-evaluation systems based at least in part on a set of performance-based standards are Ann Arbor, Mich.; Chicago; the District of Columbia; Elgin and Rockford, Ill.; Prince George’s County, Md.; and select districts in states such as Idaho, New York, Rhode Island, and Vermont.

But as those school districts scale up their work, they face a phalanx of obstacles, the greatest of which is probably the paucity of highly regarded...