The Cornerstones of Evaluating Teacher Effectiveness

Teacher evaluation trends nationwide deemphasize test scores and focus on teachers' instructional skills, classroom management prowess, and overall professionalism. How can school systems foster a more equitable, transparent, and meaningful teacher evaluation process that addresses this shift? Over the next six weeks, this blog series will explore cornerstones of evaluating teacher effectiveness that inspired the development of the Evidence-First™ model.

Fairness & Objectivity

Effective teacher evaluation systems must inspire trust among educators, starting with fairness. The Evidence-First™ approach strengthens objectivity by focusing solely on what can be seen and documented in the classroom, removing ambiguity from the scoring process. Instead of relying on evaluators’ interpretations of vague rubric language, scores are driven by clear, observable instructional practices. This shifts the conversation from “I think” to “I saw.” By using standardized, research-aligned evidence markers and automated scoring logic, evaluations can now be more consistent and transparent across classrooms and evaluators.

Efficiency & Practicality

Teacher evaluation shouldn't be a time-consuming administrative bottleneck. The Evidence-First model was designed with the realities of school life in mind. By allowing evaluators to tag evidence quickly during an observation and having the system handle the rest, from rubric-aligned documentation to scoring, time-consuming steps are dramatically reduced. What once took hours can now be completed in half the time (without sacrificing depth or quality), ensuring that educators receive meaningful and timely feedback with rubric-aligned suggestions for continuous improvement.

Actionable & Growth-Focused Feedback

Feedback should be more than a formality—it should guide and motivate educators to grow. Evaluations using the Evidence-First model generate highly specific rubric-aligned feedback rooted in the instructional practices observed, making it directly applicable to each educator’s professional development plan. Whether it's identifying an opportunity to strengthen student questioning strategies or reinforcing the effective use of "student talk", the system suggests insightful, rubric-aligned next steps strategies that educators can act on right away. The end goal? A cycle of feedback that fuels progress,  not just performance reviews.

Multiple Measures of Practice

No single measure can fully capture the complexity of teaching. That’s why the Evidence-First approach is built to support a multi-dimensional view of educator effectiveness. It weaves together formal observation data, walkthrough trends, student learning objectives, and progress on professional development goals to offer a more complete and balanced understanding of teaching practice. This approach honors both the snapshot moments and the sustained patterns that define good teaching. When multiple sources of data are viewed together, school leaders can make smarter, more strategic decisions about support, recognition, and coaching.

Alignment with School & District Goals

Teacher evaluations should do more than simply check compliance boxes—they should reinforce the district's mission and instructional values. The Evidence-First model makes this possible by enabling district-customized evidence markers that align with local goals, whether that’s fostering a new reading initiative, promoting collaborative problem-solving opportunities, or emphasizing student outreach in the community. This ensures that the feedback teachers receive isn’t just generic—it reflects the real expectations and priorities of their district. And because the same goals are embedded across observations, walkthroughs, and PD planning, there’s consistency at every level. Evaluations become a tool not just for accountability, but for driving district-wide instructional improvement. 

Join us each week as this blog series explores how the Evidence-First scoring approach integrates these core principles of teacher evaluation into the formal evaluation process via the LoTi® Teacher Evaluation. It's time to transform the stale teacher evaluation grind into a revitalized tool for meaningful professional growth—one that values fairness, fosters improvement, and ultimately enhances student learning.