The Politics of Teacher Evaluation: A Case Study of New System Design and Implementation

The purpose of this article is to describe the political aspects of the implementation of a new teacher evaluation system through the means of an observational case study. Designing and implementing a systemwide reform such as that involved in a new teacher evaluation system often is emotionally laden and politically challenging. Technical expertise is required in defining what constitutes good teaching and selecting appropriate methods for collecting accurate data. Equally important, however, is a sophisticated political understanding of how to structure the development and implementation processes to optimize the support of various stakeholders for the new evaluation system. In addition to describing the phenomenon, policy and practice recommendations will be offered to facilitate the negotiation of such a change.