The Structure and Substance of Teachers' Opportunities to Learn about Teacher Evaluation Reform: Promise or Pitfall for Equity?
ABSTRACT Despite growing momentum to overhaul teacher evaluation policies and practices, scant research examines how educators at the street level of such reform principals and teachers make sense of them, and almost no research examines the implications of current evaluation reforms for equity. This article provides findings based on a study of 14 districts implementing a new teacher evaluation policy in Connecticut. It focuses on how principals shaped teachers' opportunities to learn about the new policy. We find that the majority of teachers' opportunities to learn were formal and in whole group or one on one formats. We find important differences in the quantity and quality of learning opportunities at the district level, with districts serving greater shares of low income students, students of color, and English language learners generally offering teachers fewer and lower quality opportunities to learn about the new reform than their counterparts. As such, this article builds on prior research illustrating the potential of new evaluation systems to exacerbate inequities and raises important cautions regarding the extent to which the unprecedented teacher evaluation reforms (currently underway) may exacerbate inequities among school districts.