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The Every Student Succeeds Act provides an opportunity for policymakers and researchers to revisit what is known about effective teacher evaluation practices to make better-informed decisions moving forward. Principals—responsible for implementing new teacher evaluation reforms and accommodating the demands to spend more time observing and providing feedback to teachers—are overworked. They have little time to provide high-quality feedback, and may lack important content-based expertise. With these considerations in mind, we explore the role of peer observation and feedback as a vehicle to move beyond high-stakes evaluation and re-center efforts on instructional improvement. Our systematic review of extant literature (n = 38 documents, 92% peer-reviewed empirical articles) indicates that peer observation and feedback is a promising practice for instructional improvement, but one that lacks sufficient evidence. Policy, thus, can encourage innovation and research around this practice so that peer observation and feedback models can be piloted and the most effective established, as well as strategies to tackle the biggest barriers schools, particularly U.S. schools face in implementing such a practice—time.

In recent years, the benefits of bilingualism through dual language (DL) education models have been well documented. Despite evidence of bilinguals' heightened cognition and achievement, Midwestern English language learners (ELLs) are relegated to language programs that do nothing to enhance or maintain students' native language. This descriptive study employed a survey to collect data on existing DL programs across the state of Illinois (the largest population of ELLs in the Midwest), to better understand the challenges facing DL educators and administrators in the nation's middle. Data suggests the predominant obstacle encountered by school administrators is a lack of qualified DL educators, including an inadequate knowledge of dual language pedagogy and/or limited academic language biliteracy. Dual language program expansion across the Midwest can only continue if the teacher shortage and development needs are addressed. This study presents recommendations for DL teacher preparation and professional development.

Wages that are not commensurate with level of education (National Association of Colleges and Employers [NACE], 2013), demanding responsibilities, and pressures leveraged by high-stakes testing and evaluation, have led to soaring rates of attrition and a disproportionate number of beginning teachers in U.S. classrooms. Teacher experience has decreased from a mode of 15 years in 1978–1988 to five in 2011–2012 (Ingersoll, Merrill, & Stuckey, 2014). And, nearly half of all teachers leave within five years costing U.S. public schools 2.6 billion dollars annually (Alliance for Excellent Education [AEE], 2004). These trends in the teaching workforce have important implications for school improvement, given that teachers show significant growth in their formative years (Henry, Bastian, & Fortner, 2011; Kersting, Chen, & Stigler, 2013; Rivkin, Hanushek, & Kain, 2005) and that all teacher turnover harms student achievement (Ronfeldt, Loeb, & Wyckoff, 2013). For these reasons, the insights of mid-career and veteran teachers who have successfully navigated the treacherous first years are especially important, particularly in comparison to their earlycareer counterparts. We wonder: Is there a way of thinking about the struggles and successes within teaching that buffer teachers from their environmental stressors and supports retention?