The evaluation of teachers is at the forefront of national discussion, with the divide on the topic growing increasingly deeper. Teachers are under attack, in a war waged from the top down, complete with private entities, standardization, and a limited view of what it means to be «good» or «effective». In both teacher preparation programs and in our public schools, teachers entering the profession and practicing in classrooms face evaluation measures that are biased, unreliable, and reliant upon quantitative outcomes. Teacher Evaluation: The Charge and the Challenges aims to «talk back» to the national rhetoric about teacher evaluation and accountability measures, with a call for all educators, policy makers, activists, scholars, and reformers to engage in critical dialogue and democratic practices.

Kate E. O¿Hara, PhD, is an assistant professor in the School of Education at New York Institute of Technology and also an independent curriculum designer and instructional technology specialist. Her scholarship focuses on teacher education in relation to contexts of power, oppression, and social justice as well as the effective use of technology by both teachers and students to develop literacies and enact a critical pedagogy.

Contents: Kevin Froner/Nicholas M. Michelli: Teacher Evaluation in the Current Era: Implications for Teacher Education Policy and Pedagogy ¿ David A. Gorlewski/Julie A. Gorlewski: Producing Professionals:Analyzing What Counts for edTPA ¿ Mark Garrison: Measurement as Politics by Other Means: the Case of Test-Based Teacher Evaluation ¿ Kate E. O¿Hara: Evaluating Teachers: Making Meaning Out of the Madness ¿ Elizabeth A. Bloom/Barbara Regenspan/Jennifer McDowall: On the Ramparts: Edtpa and the Fight to Reclaim Our Beloved Profession ¿ Pamela Althea Joyce/Joy Barnes-Johnson/Joanne M. Carris: Crash [dis-]Course: a Critical View of Teaching,Testing, and the Times ¿ Lynda Kennedy: Remembrances of Things Past: Teacher Evaluation, High Stakes Testing, and the Marginalization of Social Studies and History Instruction ¿ Anne Beitlers/Pedro Noguera: Curricular Relevance: Students¿ Needs and Teachers¿ Practice ¿ Haiwen Chu/Gloria Rodríguez Bañuelos: Aligning Multidimensional Teacher Evaluation with Professional Development Centered on English Language Learners ¿ Jaime E. Martinez: How do We Relate to Teachers as Revolutionaries in a System that Evaluates Them?