In November 2013, the Office of Research and Evaluation (ORE) surveyed approximately 6,000 educators to gain feedback on the School District of Philadelphia’s (SDP) 2012-13 educator evaluation process. The 2012-13 school year was the final year in which the teacher evaluation model was based solely on classroom observations. Starting in the 2013-14 school year, SDP planned to implement the Pennsylvania Department of Education’s new educator effectiveness system, mandated by Act 82 of 2012. When fully implemented, teachers would be evaluated on a composite measure that incorporates classroom observation data, building level scores as measured by the School Performance Profile, and individual impact on student achievement. The findings from this brief serve as a baseline to observe changes in teacher perceptions of Pennsylvania’s new educator effectiveness system.

Important findings include:

• Overall, the majority of educators surveyed reported positive feedback regarding their 2012-13 evaluation and were satisfied with the evaluation process. However, this majority did not hold true at the individual school level.
• The plurality of respondents reported the formal feedback they received from their evaluator in 2012-13 focused more on helping them improve their practice than making a judgment about their performance.
• Educators who felt that their 2012-13 evaluation was more focused on improving their practice were more likely to report positive perceptions of several aspects of the teacher evaluation process and its goals.

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