Publications

Sustaining a System for High-Quality Teachers, Report 2: Market Opportunities and Typical Wages for Austin Independent School District Teachers and Leavers
This report includes two studies that describe the local context for teacher employment decisions. The first examines the local labor market, and the second examines employment for teachers who left Austin Independent School District (AISD).

Sustaining a System for High-Quality Teachers, Report 1: Key Characteristics of Austin Independent School District Teacher Leavers and Transfers
This report describes how many teachers transferred or changed jobs in AISD, remained at their schools, or left the school district after the 2013–2014 school year, along with characteristics of teachers in each group.

Understanding the School-Wide Value-Added Measure Used in the Professional Pathways for Teachers (PPfT) Appraisal System
This document describes PPfT school-wide value-added measure by showing how to gain access to your SAS Education Value-Added Assessment System (EVAAS) account, stepping through the school growth measures, and discussing how growth is scored in PPfT appraisal.

Professional Development and Appraisal System (PDAS) in Austin Independent School District
Correlations for PDAS scores from year to year were moderate, and experienced teachers generally outperformed their novice peers. Data suggest a weak-to-moderate relationship between 3-year averages of teachers’ PDAS and student growth scores.

AISD Pilot Teacher Appraisal System, 2011-2012
Results from the 2011-12 pilot teacher appraisal system suggest peer, administrator, and student feedback are valuable tools that can be used with Student Learning Objectives and value-added data to provide a holistic evaluation of teachers in AISD.

Austin Independent School District Pilot Teacher Appraisal System Update: Results of the 2012-2013 Student Response Survey
Feedback was obtained on 683 teachers at 12 schools from 9,000 pre-kindergarten through 12th grade students. Students’ ratings were generally favorable and correlated with some observation-based ratings. Implications for policy are addressed.

Austin Independent School District (AISD) Pilot Teacher Appraisal System Update: 2012-2013 Focus Group and Survey Summary
This report summarizes data gathered from focus groups and a survey designed to assess teachers’ experiences with AISD's pilot teacher appraisal system. Additional data are included regarding the timing of administrators’ classroom observations.

High School Redesign: Professional Learning Communities, 2007-2008
This report summarizes the 2007-2008 evaluation results of AISD's high school professional learning communities initiative.

Year 2 Evaluation of the Educator Excellence Innovation Program in Austin Independent School District
This report describes feedback from teachers at the six EEIP schools. EEIP includes implementation of a new teacher appraisal system, student learning objectives, professional learning communities, novice teacher mentoring, and targeted peer observation.

Professional Pathways for Teachers (PPfT) - 2016-2017
This report summaries the Professional Pathways for Teachers (PPfT) appraisal scores and teachers perceptions of the appraisal system. The PPfT appraisal system was developed and refined during the 2014-2015 and 2015-2016 school years. The 2016-2017 school the appraisal system was implemented district-wide. The 2016-2017 appraisal scores will serve as a baseline for all future evaluation activities.