During a recent Race to the Top guidelines reading marathon, I came across some of the clearest thinking I have seen about measuring teacher effectiveness. I have read countless articles and papers addressing why measuring teacher effectiveness is so difficult and how it could cause more harm than good. Yet, I have refused to believe most of these claims through shear experience. We have managed to determine what a successful doctor, lawyer, NFL quarterback, pilot, mechanic, psychologist, plumber, relief pitcher, alpaca farmer, and regional quick lube chain president look like and there is no reason we should not do the same for teachers.

The clarity offered by the definitions of ‘effective teacher’ and ‘highly effective teacher’ in the Race to the Top guidelines was inspiring in its clarity, assuming the e.g.’s become part of the actual definition:

• Effective Teacher means a teacher whose students achieve acceptable rates (e.g. at least one grade level in an academic year) of student growth
• Highly Effective Teacher means a teacher whose students achieve high rates (e.g. more than one grade level in an academic year) of student growth

The definition is not only clear from a measurement standpoint; it is easily communicated to parents and community members. There are no qualifications, conditions, or exceptions, which is exactly what we strive for when defining metrics for clients.

My sincere hope is that the ‘e.g.’ becomes the true definition for Race to the Top and eventually a common definition nationally for teacher effectiveness. We owe it to our teachers to set clear benchmarks for performance, to our students to have high expectations, and to our parents to clearly share performance results.