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China has a long tradition of respecting teachers and valuing education. In order to strengthen the teacher workforce, the central government of China has implemented a series of educational policies related to teachers and teaching since the 1990s. Alongside this line of educational reforms, the conceptual frameworks with regard to teacher effectiveness also have been evolving. This chapter reviews the major policies that have been issued over the past 30 years in China and examines their implications for teacher preparation and certification, professional development, and educational equity. In addition, some unique features of teacher effectiveness practices in China are explored in this chapter.

This chapter provides an overview of the educational system from the founding of the country to today. Like Australia and Canada, the governmental structure involves the national government with smaller units in the form of the 50 states and the District of Columbia. This structure means variation of educational systems across governmental units. The authors provide an overview of the influence of conceptions of teaching effectiveness including the development of professional organization standards, passing of national legislation aimed at defining teacher effectiveness in terms of student outcomes, and standards-based teacher evaluation systems. Unique features of the United States perspective include a focus on differentiation to include getting to know the needs of individual students and meeting those individual needs. The authors describe the cultural basis for these unique features.

This study employed survey research in China to investigate the relationships among teacher evaluation, teacher self-efficacy, and teacher job satisfaction, while controlling for demographic variables. Four hundred and twenty-five teachers from a medium-sized city in Heilongjiang Province participated. The study examined the teachers’ perceptions regarding using student achievement data in evaluation, finding mixed views about the inclusion of student scores, consistent with many recent studies on teacher evaluation reforms. Principal component analysis was conducted on the perception data and three factors emerged. The three factors were used in hierarchical multiple regression analyses and, in addition, three variables of teacher self-efficacy (i.e., efficacy for student engagement, efficacy for instructional strategies, and efficacy for classroom management) also were included in the analyses. The analyses found that (a) teachers’ perceptions of their evaluation have a significant explanatory power on their job satisfaction, and (b) when their perceptions of evaluation are controlled, teachers’ self-efficacy can explain additional variance in teachers’ job satisfaction. Specifically, teachers’ self-efficacy for student engagement was significantly predictive. Implications for educational policymakers and practitioners in light of enhancing teacher job satisfaction and developing rigorous teacher evaluation are discussed.

This study examines the validity of a statewide teacher evaluation system in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Three hundred and thirty-eight teachers from 16 at-risk schools located in eight school districts participated in an evaluation system pilot during the 2011-2012 academic year. Teachers received ratings on six teacher effectiveness process standards and one student academic progress outcome measure. For the outcome measure, student academic progress was measured by student growth percentiles (where available and appropriate) and student achievement goal setting (i.e., student learning objectives). The study examines the internal validity of the system, specifically (1) the relationship between the six teacher effectiveness process standards and the student academic progress outcome measure and (2) the relationship between ratings on outcome measure for teachers with student growth percentile data and without.

Using Hofstede’s culture dimensions and World Values Survey (WVS) dimensions, the study uses a series of multiple regressions to explore the relationship among national culture, creativity as measured by patents, economic productivity as measured by gross domestic product per capita, and student achievement as measured by Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study. The findings of this exploratory study highlight long-term orientation value from Hofstede’s national culture dimensions and tradition versus secular-rational values from the WVS as the most significant predictors of student academic achievement. A series of 12 regression analyses indicated significant relationships among student achievement, creativity, and economic productivity with models explaining between 19.9% and 76.0% of the variance among countries.

This article presents the results of an interpretive policy analysis of China’s Ministry of Education Standards (2013) for the professional practice of principals. In addition to revealing the evolution of the evaluation of principals in China and the processes by which this policy is formulated, a comparative analysis was conducted to compare it with the Interstate School Leaders Licensure Standards 2008 (ISLLC 2008). The analysis was conducted on the specific standards and indicators across the two documents. The results indicate the presence of both significant similarities and differences in performance expectations for principals: differences are explained by the cultural and national contexts within which school leaders work in both countries. In February 2013 the Ministry of Education in China issued for the first time the national Professional Standards for Compulsory Education School Principals, which provide the specific expectations of quality school leadership. The unprecedented interest in international benchmarking of student academic performance has led to the belief that there are common elements in education policy and school leadership practices. It is hoped that this research sheds new light onto the current thinking on the expectations and evaluation of principal leadership.

Teacher performance evaluation currently is receiving unprecedented attention from policy makers, scholars, and practitioners worldwide. This study is one of the few studies of teacher perceptions regarding teacher performance measures that focus on China. We employed a quantitative dominant mixed research design to investigate Chinese teachers’ preferences for teacher performance measures and the possible reasons for their preferences. Considering the quantitative results, the surveyed Chinese teachers identified fulfillment of additional roles, collaboration with faculty and staff, and students’ test scores as the most important measures for performance evaluation. Qualitatively, the most important measures that the surveyed teachers reported were the teacher’s morality, workload, and students’ test scores.

Two research questions guided this study of teacher selection: (a) What characteristics do Chinese principals look for when hiring teachers? And (b) what is the effect of participants’ gender, experience, or school location on perceived characteristics of effective teacher candidates in hiring? Both interviews and a questionnaire survey were used to collect data from a southwest city of Shandong Province, China. In this mixed design study, quantitative results were consistent with the qualitative results. Additionally, the study results are intended to help readers better understand school principals’ perceived characteristics of effective teachers in a Chinese context and provides a framework for future comparative research between China and the USA.

The purpose of this study was to examine the connections between national culture and student achievement. Using Hofstede’s six cultural dimensions and the two dimensions from the World Values survey, we conducted multiple regressions to determine the most significant predictors of student achievement as measured by the 2009 Program for International Student Assessment in reading, mathematics, and science. Our analyses found that the most significant predictors of student achievement on all three student outcome included the following cultural dimensions based on two different frameworks: (1) a culture’s focus on fostering long-term orientation to include emphasis on perseverance to achieve future-oriented results and (2) a culture’s focus on secular-rational values vs. traditional values. In addition, findings indicate that when mapped geographically, similar patterns emerge among the two cultural dimensions.

The purpose of this study was to develop a richer understanding of teacher effectiveness through cross-cultural analyses of the practices and beliefs of selected China and US teachers who have received national awards for their teaching. This study was based upon a phenomenological design that used semi-structured interviews, classroom observations, and artifacts for data generation/collection. Sixteen China teachers and 16 US teachers participated in this study. This study revealed similarities and differences between US teachers and China teachers in their patterns of instructional practices and professional thinking. The major similarities found between them were (a) using a variety of instructional activities which spanned across different cognitive levels, (b) being opportunistic planners to maximize meaningful student learning, (c) having high student engagement, (d) presenting effective classroom management skills, and (e) maintaining a learning environment that was conducive to optimal learning. Primary differences between US and China teachers’ classrooms included the types of instructional activities used and their beliefs and practices in the areas of (a) instructional planning, (b) differentiation, (c) assessment, (d) classroom management, (e) relationships with students and parents, and (f) professional development.

This article is a revision of the previous edition article by J. Brophy, volume 23, pp. 15450–15454, © 2001, Elsevier Ltd.

Teacher evaluation has evolved over time from focusing on the moral values of a teacher in the early 1900s to standards-based evaluation models of today that seek to include measures of student academic progress. Often, teacher evaluation systems seek to serve two needs: accountability and improvement. Changes in teacher evaluation have been influenced by political winds as well as a desire to create systems that are fair and balanced. This article begins with an overview of the purposes of teacher evaluation. Next, often-cited international and US policy and research reports as well as foundational textbooks related to teacher effectiveness and teacher evaluation are highlighted. The article then provides an overview of early models of teacher evaluation focused on the roles and responsibilities of a teacher and the evolution to contemporary models of teacher evaluation with a focus on a standards-based and/or outcomes-based approach to evaluation. The next section highlights seminal works that emerged in measuring teacher effectiveness as well as value-added models to support an outcomes-based approach by including student academic progress as part of evaluation. Including student outcomes has been the topic of intense discussion as policymakers and researchers debate the validity of the use of student test scores in terms of value-added modeling and other growth models. Researchers do not agree on the stability of such models and whether they do differentiate between effective and less effective teachers. Research will continue to inform and enrich this debate and discussion. Teacher observation remains a critical part of the evaluation process and the article provides a historical overview of common practices and challenges of teacher observation. Finally, works that illuminate impacts of teacher evaluation are provided, including texts and reports related to teacher growth and development, teacher retention, and teacher compensation.