ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses the ways and means of using multiple data sources in teacher evaluation. Teacher evaluation in education historically has relied heavily—and often solely— on direct observation. Self-evaluation historically has had little to commend it, especially for accountability or institutional decision-making purposes. While evaluation by students is common in higher education, it is relatively infrequent in elementary and secondary schools. Although teacher evaluation traditionally has relied heavily—almost exclusively—on formal classroom observation for documentation, a quality teacher evaluation system cannot simply depend upon observation alone. The purpose of a teacher evaluation system is to provide a comprehensive picture of performance in order to guide professional growth, then classroom observations should be only one piece of the information collected. Additionally, there are numerous advantages to collecting performance evaluation data from a variety of sources. Direct observation as the sole basis for performance evaluation has limited utility and can even be questioned as a valid and reliable means of evaluating classroom teachers.
