No More Valentines

Too often, teacher evaluations haven't provided enough information to spur improvement in teaching. The vast majority of teachers in any school, district, or state are rated above--sometimes well above--average. The feedback that teachers do receive is often not specific enough to help them improve. In this article, Morgaen Donaldson explores some of the reasons behind these unhelpful, sometimes overly positive evaluations. She also tells of three school systems that have made concrete changes to their evaluation systems in an attempt to make them more useful. (Contains 1 endnote.)