Legislative Action

The Maine Legislature in recent years has taken significant steps to enhance educator evaluation in the state's schools.

Maine's Senate and House passed laws in 2010 and 2011 that send a distinct message: Educator evaluation should be a fair and meaningful process that promotes teachers' and administrators' continuous improvement and professional growth.

In 2010, legislators passed Public Law 2010, Chapter 646, a first step toward allowing teacher and principal evaluation instruments used by school districts to take student achievement into account as one of multiple performance measures.

That law set up an 11-member task force to vet teacher and principal evaluation methods that consider student achievement data as a measure of job performance. The Evaluation Model Stakeholders Group comprised the Commissioner of Education and representatives from professional associations of teachers, principals, superintendents, school board members and special education directors.

Public Law 2011, Chapter 36 -- passed by the Maine Legislature in 2011 -- expanded the ability of school districts to use meaningful evaluations for their teachers and principals. The law allowed schools to develop and adopt evaluations that take student achievement data into account without first seeking the approval of the Evaluation Model Stakeholders Group.

Maine Statute

• Public Law 2011, Chapter 36: View as web page or PDF.
• Public Law 2010, Chapter 646: View as web page or PDF.

Evaluation Model Stakeholders Group

• Stakeholders: Information on the task force. View stakeholders group web page.
• Evaluation Review Template: The tool used by task force members to review teacher and principal evaluation models. View as PDF (178KB).

Evaluation Resources for Policymakers

• Teacher Evaluation Models in Practice: A guide to teacher evaluation models from the National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality.
• Getting Teacher Assessment Right: A publication from the National Education Policy Center at the University of Colorado at Boulder.
• TAP Elements of Success: From the System for Teacher and Student Advancement.
• Evaluate Principal Effectiveness: The VAL-ED Model.
• Value-Added Assessment: From the Center for Greater Philadelphia at the University of Pennsylvania.
• Maine Schools for Excellence: Find more on the project resources page.

Papers and Presentations

• Charlotte Danielson: Assessing Teacher Effectiveness (PDF, 76KB)
• Laura Goe: Student Learning and Achievement in Measuring Teacher Effectiveness (PDF, 440KB)
• Sean P. Corcoran: The Use of Value-Added Measures of Teacher Effectiveness in Policy and Practice (PDF, 676KB)