The Denver New Millennium Initiative (NMI) unites an innovative, energized group of early-career teachers, diverse in experience but committed to making a difference for students. We teach in eleven districts in the Denver metro area with a variety of students in myriad grades and subject areas. We entered the profession through diverse routes, from Teach for America to a traditional undergraduate program at the University of Colorado. We share common beliefs about the future of teaching and learning, fortified through our unique perspectives, which motivate us to advocate for a new vision for transforming education in the Denver metro area, in Colorado and nationally.

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Our Vision for the Future of Teaching and Learning

In most schools and districts, teacher evaluation has changed little over the past 30 years and remains an unstable tool for identifying and supporting effective teachers. Colorado’s landmark law Ensuring Quality Instruction Through Educator Effectiveness (or EQuITEE, formerly titled SB 191) has the potential to move our profession forward. The act aims to transform education by linking teaching effectiveness measures to student learning outcomes. We developed a set of TeacherSolutions to ensure the act will be implemented in an effective manner. Four issues deserve the most immediate attention:

Developing meaningful measures of student growth (including in non-tested areas) to comprise 50 percent of a teacher’s evaluation, as required by state law

• A goal attainment process, using locally developed assessments, should be utilized to measure student growth—in addition to the Colorado Growth Model.
• Pre- and post-tests should be developed to measure growth from the beginning to the end of the school year—rather than from one year to the next.
• The Colorado Department of Education should create a statewide assessment database.

Defining qualifications and training for evaluators

• Practicing classroom teachers should be selected to serve as peer evaluators and rotate through a two- to three-year teacher/evaluator cycle, either full time or in a hybrid role.
• Evaluators should be trained extensively, required to pass assessments of their observation skills and provided ongoing support.

Determining how to account for school conditions and student factors

• Evaluation rubrics should be developed at the state level, with standard domains as well as a menu of options from which districts and schools may choose, based on their unique needs.
• Growth data should be analyzed in relevant and related subgroups. 
• Student attendance should be considered in the growth model.

Designing an evaluation system that informs both employment decisions and professional growth and learning

• Teachers should meet with their evaluators before and after the observation period.
• Professional guilds of teachers should take responsibility for designing differentiated, relevant professional growth and learning activities for teachers at all levels of effectiveness.
• Teachers should be provided opportunities to develop action research plans and then share implications for their instruction through professional learning communities.

Colorado will make significant strides toward improving evaluations of teaching effectiveness by adopting these recommendations, bringing us all one step closer to our mutual goal of improving student learning.

To learn more about the Denver New Millennium Initiative, contact Ali Kliegman at akliegman@teachingquality.org.