Effective instruction and family-school collaboration are essential components of student academic success. National PTA supports the state^* and local development and implementation of effective, fair, and meaningful teacher and principal evaluation systems that improve the capacity of educators and families to enhance student learning and academic achievement.

National PTA supports legislation and policy decisions to enable state and local development and implementation of teacher and principal evaluation systems.

Teacher and Principal Evaluation Systems should:

• Be designed primarily to improve instruction, increase student learning, and support continuous improvement;
• Be developed and implemented in collaboration with teachers, administrators, families, and other education stakeholders;
• Inform and support ongoing teacher and principal professional development;
• Inform and support interventions for students to achieve academic success;
• Require ongoing evaluation using multiple measures of teacher and principal performance and close examination of both quantitative and qualitative data;
• Require professional development for any individuals conducting evaluations to provide quality and consistency of evaluation processes;
• Account for varied circumstances that impact student achievement;
• Include student achievement and/or student growth as a significant factor in evaluating teacher  and principal performance – the level of significance to be state/locally determined;
• Provide teachers and principals with continuous, meaningful feedback and substantive support based on evaluation results;
• Meet all standards set by federal or state government;
• Be uniformly applied across all schools within the Local Educational Agency;
• Leave personnel decisions regarding terms and conditions of teacher and principal employment based on evaluation results to local determination;
• Provide for the disclosure of evaluation results in a format that

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  • Is accessible and understandable to the general public;
  • Respects individual teacher and principal privacy consistent with personnel policies; and
  • Includes assurances that needed supports and interventions identified by evaluation results will be implemented.

* United States Department of Defense, United States Department of the Interior, and any applicable territories not under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Education.