The Education Program has spent more than a decade helping to build the research base to show that teachers are the biggest in-school determinant of student success. Joyce has also invested in efforts that helped transform teacher evaluation policies to ensure they better gauge teacher effectiveness.
Now, with these new tools available, Joyce is funding efforts to promote policies that use teacher evaluations to guide better professional development. As a recent report from The New Teacher Project (TNTP) notes, school districts spend a significant amount of money on professional development for educators – and it’s not always resulting in better teachers. Joyce-funded teacher voice groups, such as Educators 4 Excellence and Teach Plus, also are thinking about this issue and working on potential policy fixes.