AIR and Public Agenda co-hosted a June 20, 2013 discussion on how education leaders can avoid frustration and arrive at sustainable teacher evaluation systems by engaging teachers in design and implementation. Co-authors of the book, Everyone at the Table, presented their field-tested approach to productive dialogue that leads to effective policy.

Watch what teachers and policy experts had to say about current evaluation systems, efforts to include teachers in evaluation reform, and ways to expand these efforts nationwide.

Introduction

AIR Vice President Sabrina Laine introduces the event and the book authors and welcomes the diverse range of participants, including representatives from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, teacher leaders, policy organizations, researchers, and other leaders in the field.

From Seniority to a Performance-driven Field

Celine Coggins, founder and CEO of Teach Plus, describes the development of the innovative Teach Plus Teaching Policy Fellowship program since 2007-08, including its role in driving a performance-based profession and the pilot of the T3 program, which moved teams of excellent teachers from low-need to high-need Boston schools.

Gen Y’s Impact on the Workforce and the World

Book author Ellen Behrstock-Sherratt describes the need for the education field to strategically compete for top talent from Generation Y by making teaching the type of dynamic profession—including through policy influence and opportunities to make a far-reaching positive impact—where talented Generation Y members want to work.

Teacher Engagement Takes Place on Many Levels

Allison Rizzolo, book author and communications director of Public Agenda, describes the diversity of contexts in which teacher policy engagement can take place. These include community conversations that have brought together San Jose School District teachers, parents, and community and business leaders in a model of collaborative engagement over the past two decades, recently leading to a “groundbreaking” new teacher evaluation system.

Teachers’ Takeaways from Recent Reform

Anthony Mullen, a national teacher of the year, describes how, despite this recognition, he has never been invited to engage in the policy dialogue, and how the policy landscape is now changing in this regard.

Where Can Teacher Voice Make a Difference?

Ross Wiener, vice president at the Aspen Institute and executive director of the Education and Society Program, describes the need to consider the best avenues for teacher voice in policy design, particularly in cases where administrators are not receptive to authentic teacher engagement.