Watch the full video of this event.

The race to reform teacher evaluation has begun. With plenty of evidence that current systems of teacher evaluation are seriously flawed, and unprecedented government and private funding to improve these systems, states and districts are in the midst of major overhauls. At the same time, there is near consensus that professional development systems are also in dire need of improvement.

The link between evaluation (how well are you doing?) and professional development (how can you improve?) is key to successful performance management systems in nearly every other industry. Yet, in education there is still far too little attention to how these two core elements of teacher performance inform one another, and how, in policy and practice, they can be systematically aligned.

On June 30, 2010, Education Sector hosted a live panel discussion on emerging strategies to link teacher evaluation and professional development and the implications of Race to the Top funding and the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act on the long-term improvement of these core elements.

Watch the full video of this event below:

(right click to view in full screen)

Also enjoy photo highlights from this event below, or directly on Flickr. Also follow coverage of this event (and ongoing conversation) on Twitter! Search the hashtag #esteach and join in!

Panelists include:
Scott Thompson, IMPACT, the new teacher evaluation system for the Washington, D.C., public schools
Brad Jupp, senior program adviser for teacher quality initiatives, U.S. Department of Education
Jen Mulhern, The New Teacher Project, who worked with New Haven on their new evaluation system
Elena Silva, senior policy analyst, Education Sector (as moderator)

Four bloggers—all teachers provided reactions to the panel and asked the first questions. They will post their reflections on their own blog and on The Quick and the Ed.

The four teachers and their blogs are:

Wookie Kim teaches English at the secondary level in the District of Columbia Public Schools. He is also a first-year Teach for America D.C. region corps member. He reflects on his experience as a D.C. educator on his blog, ABCDE.

Dina Strasser teaches seventh-grade English in upstate New York. The former Fulbright scholar has been an educator for 11 years, spending eight of those years teaching English as a Second Language at all levels of education. She blogs at The Line.

Tom White has taught third grade in suburban Seattle for 26 years. He is a National Board Certified Teacher and blogs at Stories from School, which is sponsored by The Center for Strengthening the Teaching Profession.

Ann-Bailey Lipsett teaches at an extremely diverse public elementary school in suburban Washington. She blogs at Organized Chaos.

The Joyce Foundation provided funding for this project. We thank them for their support but acknowledge that the views presented during this event are those of the panelists alone and do not necessarily represent the opinions of the foundation.