Excellence in Teaching Project (EITP): Danielson Framework-based principal observation and conferencing system¶

Element · All elements
Evidence · 6 claims (6 for) · 1 study (1 causal), q3 · 1 of 1 report an effect size · 6 claims rest on one study

Description¶

EITP replaced Chicago's checklist-based teacher evaluation with a system in which principals conduct two formal observations per year for all teachers, each with a pre-observation conference, a 30–60 minute observation collecting evidence rather than opinions, ratings on ten areas of practice, and a post-observation conference focused on improving practice. Principals rated teachers on the Danielson Framework's Classroom Environment and Instruction domains across "four levels of performance (unsatisfactory, basic, proficient, and distinguished)." The district aimed to improve teaching and learning, build a professional learning climate, and foster constructive evaluation.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Principals require district training in the Danielson Framework, evidence collection, and conferencing, plus central-office support such as deadline reminders and ratings calibration sessions

Constraints¶

• Because the district and union disagreed on impacts for nontenured teachers, the classroom observation ratings under EITP could not be used for teacher accountability such as tenure decisions

Target Learners¶

• Elementary school teachers and principals in Chicago Public Schools

Target Learning Goals¶

• Improving instructional practice and student achievement in reading and mathematics

Claims¶

• Higher-achieving schools realized a bigger first-year reading benefit from the evaluation pilot than lower-achieving schools [+W]
• Low-poverty schools benefited more from the evaluation pilot than high-poverty schools, in both math and reading [+W]
• No significant heterogeneity in pilot effects by school racial/ethnic composition was found [+W]
• The reading achievement gap between cohort 1 and cohort 2 schools persisted into the second year, with the year 3 estimate no longer statistically significant [+W]
• The first-year effect of the EITP pilot on school-level math achievement (0.05 SD) was not statistically significant [+W]
• After the first year of the EITP pilot, cohort 1 schools improved reading achievement by 0.10 standard deviations relative to cohort 2 schools [+W]

Related Elements¶

• REACH teacher evaluation system
• Principal buy-in typology table from the Excellence in Teaching Year 1 exit interviews

Examples¶

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Key Sources¶

• Matthew P. Steinberg and Lauren Sartain. (2015). Does Teacher Evaluation Improve School Performance? Experimental Evidence from Chicago's Excellence in Teaching Project. Association for Education Finance and Policy. https://doi.org/10.1162/EDFP_a_00173