St. Charles, IL (May 4-5) ~ The spring meeting of Great Lakes TURN attracted 29 district/union teams from all six target states, plus one team from California to hear presentations and share updates on efforts to use value-added data to improve teacher effectiveness and appraisal systems.

Patrick Dolan provided an overview of the body of work the Great Lakes TURN participants have been studying over the past three years to rebuild systems, processes and policies to improve teaching effectiveness and student learning.

Dolan set the tone for the conference with a presentation: New Reality for Public Education.  Using his famous chart paper approach, he illustrated the rapid shift of policy both upward (to the national level) and downward (to the school level).  

Within that shifting context, he argued that the time is right for a journey toward a profession of learning. "For the past 30 years," says Dolan, "we were not a profession of learning - we performed over time without data." Other than National Board, there has not been a system to drive the profession with data.  Data is worthless unless we have time to discuss the data (as in a Professional Learning Community).

Dolan asks: "How do we frame it?" And answers: It needs to involve people at the local level having decision making power, within a framework of oversight and accountability from state and national government.

Steve Cantrell, Measurement of Effective Teaching Project - Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, outlined the work of The Tripod Project - Student Perceptions around Care, Control, Clarify, Challenge, Captivate, Confer, Consolidate, TestPrep - as one of the multiple measures to improve teacher effectiveness.

Rob Meyer, Director of the Value-Added Research Center, joined GL TURN on the second day of the conference to provide a deeper understanding of Value-Added Data and the added value of using it to improve teacher evaluation systems to improve professional practices and student learning (see presentation & handout).

Michelle Bissonnette, Special Assistant on Teacher Quality with the US Department of Education, talked about TIF grants and what they are seeing as leading-edge work around value-added assessments.

A team from Maysville School District (Zanesville, OH) - a teacher-leader, a principal, and the superintendent - discussed their work around the use of value-added data and their plans to use it as part of a merit-pay system. They described theirs as a climate of trust that was a prerequisite for making the new four-year contract possible.  The process began with an agreement that decisions and actions cannot be based on one data set.  The resulting evaluation and compensation system does not compare teacher to teacher. Rather, teachers are compared to themselves, over time.  They have the opportunity to earn up to $4000 more earnings per year, based on the Value Added data. (see presentation). 

(click here to view additional photos from the meeting)