Teacher Evaluation in Practice: Year 2 Teacher and Administrator Perceptions of REACH

As part of UChicago CCSR's ongoing study of Chicago Public Schools' new teacher evaluation system, this report looks at teacher and principal perceptions in the second year of implementation. It finds teachers and principals remain positive about the new evaluation system, though less so than in Year 1. This brief, a continuation of the work that began in Teacher Evaluation in Practice: Implementing Chicago’s REACH Students, draws on survey data from more than 19,000 teachers and nearly 800 principals and assistant principals to measure their views of REACH (Recognizing Educators Advancing Chicago’s Students). REACH replaced the previous checklist system, which rated nearly all teachers as excellent or superior and failed to provide much useful feedback for improving teacher practice.

JENNIE JIANG is a Research Analyst at UChicago CCSR. She previously worked as a researcher at Chapin Hall and as a teacher, both in Chicago Public Schools and in Shenzen, China. She earned an MPP in public policy at the Harris School of Public Policy at the University of Chicago and an MS in education at Northwestern University. SUSAN E. SPORTE is Director for Research Operations at UChicago CCSR. She serves as the main point of contact with Chicago Public Schools regarding data sharing and research priorities; she also oversees UChicago CCSR's data archive. The University of Chicago Consortium on Chicago School Research (UChicago CCSR) builds the capacity for school reform by conducting research that identifies what matters for student success and school improvement. Created in 1990 after the passage of the Chicago School Reform Act that decentralized governance of the city's public schools, UChicago CCSR conducts research of high technical quality that can inform and assess policy and practice in the Chicago Public Schools. UChicago CCSR studies also have informed broader national movements in public education. UChicago CCSR encourages the use of research in policy action and improvement of practice but does not argue for particular policies or programs. Rather, UChicago CCSR helps to build capacity for school reform by identifying what matters for student success and school improvement, creating critical indicators to chart progress, and conducting theory-driven evaluation to identify how programs and policies are working.