Improving Teacher Quality Through Merit-Based Evaluation: An Analysis of Indiana’s New Teacher Appraisal System and its Ability to Promote Meaningful Learning in Schools

The Obama administration’s 2009 launch of Race to the Top, a competitive grant program aimed at incentivizing states to improve teacher accountability at their schools, marked the start of an unprecedented trend toward the use of merit-based measurements in teacher evaluations. Teachers have long been regarded as the keys to student success, and as such, both education scholars and citizens have come to believe that reform efforts should focus first on improving teacher quality and effectiveness. With the increased push for accountability, many states have designed new evaluation systems whereby teachers are assessed – and in some states, compensated – on the basis of merit, determined in part by students’ performance on standardized tests. Standardized testing has become increasingly popular in American schools, mainly because it provides conformity across states and districts and is fairly cheap to administer. It does, however, beg the question: If instructors are teaching for a test, are students actually learning? Credential acquisition and the pursuit of high grades and test scores receive an emphasis equal to, if not more than, the actual acquisition of knowledge in K-12 schools. This thesis will examine how real learning and accomplishment are defined and measured, as well as how that might contrast with credential acquisition. It will then explore the characteristics and elements of Indiana’s new teacher evaluation system under the RISE rubric and evaluate them against established, researchbased standards regarding what constitutes – and is likely to promote – meaningful learning in schools. In offering a critique of Indiana’s new teacher evaluation system, this thesis will compare methodologies that scholars suggest promote real learning with methodologies or activities that are incentivized under the new system. Finally, it will make recommendations for possible improvement of Indiana’s new program.