Classroom Observations from Phase 2 of the Pennsylvania Teacher Evaluation Pilot: Assessing Internal Consistency, Score Variation, and Relationships with Value Added

This report presents findings from Phase 2 of a three-year teacher evaluation pilot conducted by the Pennsylvania Department of Education. Principals evaluated the teaching practices of teachers using The Framework for Teaching, a rubric that includes 22 components grouped into four broad teaching practice domains: (1) planning and preparation, (2) classroom environment, (3) instruction, and (4) professional responsibilities. Although principals did not typically use all 22 components, the report’s findings suggest the fairness of overall scores might not be compromised substantially by principals using different sets of components. Also, across nearly all components, teachers with higher scores on the rubric tended to make larger contributions to student achievement than did teachers with lower scores, as measured by value added. The report’s findings suggest that the rubric measures aspects of teachers’ practices related to growth in student achievement on standardized assessments.