Teacher Assessment and the Quest for Teacher Quality:A Handbook

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"This handbook addresses and sorts out many of the complex issues related to teacher assessment and teacher quality, and the connections between the two. This is no small task, given thenumerous ways and time points at which teacher quality is assessed, the multitude of stakeholders with a vested interest in assessment processes and assessment products, the competing policy and political agendas to which various assessments of teachers and teaching are attached, and ongoing controversies about what teacher quality means and why it is important. One of the strengths of this handbook is that it does not shy away from or attempt to reduce the messiness of these issues by offering a simplified notion of assessment and quality. ?From the Foreword by Marilyn Cochran-SmithPraise for Teacher Assessment and the Quest for Teacher Quality"With its stellar lineup of authors, this book tackles with impressive insight the most fundamental and urgent problem facing educators today. Because teaching is the common pathway through which all educational improvements reach the students, nothing is more important than learning to assess its quality." ?James Hiebert, Robert J. Barkley Professor of Education, University of Delaware"Improvement of human capital is an urgent priority for education reform. Kennedy and her colleagues make an important contribution by presenting a variety of productive uses of assessment to improve teacher qualities and thereby teacher quality." ?Jody Spiro, Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, New York University"I am deeply encouraged by Teacher Assessment and the Quest for Teacher Quality as it gives a fresh voice to the critical conversation of the role of assessments in measuring teacher quality. This handbook, expertly edited by Mary Kennedy, offers a considered analysis with a keen focus on student learning." ?Joyce C. Loveless, NBCT, executive director, Program Access and Equity, National Board for Professional Teaching Standards "Every teacher, administrator, and school board member will benefit greatly from reading this thought-provoking book to truly understand and appreciate the intriguing, multi-dimensional relationship between teacher assessment and teacher quality." ?Jack Umstatter, best-selling author, Brain Games!

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Mary Kennedy is a professor in the Department of Teacher Education at Michigan State University. Her research studies focus on the relationship between a teacher's qualifications and the quality of their teaching practice. She is the winner of four education awards including the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education's (AACTE) Margaret B. Lindsey Award for Distinguished Research in Teacher Education. She also served as the vice president in the Division on Teaching and Teacher Education with the American Educational Research Association (AERA).