The Challenges Associated with the Implementation of the New Teacher Evaluation Model, Achieve NJ: A Building- Based Administrators Perspective

Race to the Top is a $4.35 billion United States Department of Education program created to spur innovation and reforms in states and local districts of K-12 education. It is funded by the Education Recovery Act as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 and was announced by President Barack Obama and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan on July 24, 2009. States were awarded points for satisfying certain educational policies, such as performance-based standards (often referred to as an annual professional performance review), for teachers and principals, complying with nationwide standards, promoting charter schools and privatization of education, computerization of assessments, and changes in states’ teacher evaluation systems. In many states this has come to mean that teacher evaluation models had to have to been overhauled. Most importantly political and philanthropic entities have partner to promote shifts in the concept of teaching effectiveness. Both political parties have supported linking teacher evaluation to student test scores; and foundations such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Milken Family Foundations, and the Broad Foundation have invested significant dollars to support teacher evaluation reforms. In promoting Race to the Top, President Barack Obama’s 4 billion competitive grant program aimed at systemic education reform. President Obama (2009) stated, “Success should be measured by results. That’s why any state that makes it unlawful to link student progress to teacher evaluation will have to change its ways.” (Corcoran, 2010, p. 2)