Transforming Tenure: Using Value-Added Modeling to Identify Ineffective Teachers - This report examines transforming tenure policies by using value-added modeling (VAM) to identify ineffective teachers. The author analyzed data from Florida public schools and found that VAM scores of third year teachers predict fifth year success. The report provides recommendations for how VAM can most effectively be used in tenure reform. (CSLL, September 2012)...

Recent Teacher Policy Changes in Tennessee: Achieving and Maintaining Tenure - This brief describes 2011 legislative changes to Tennessee's tenure laws. (Offices of Research and Education Accountability, Tennessee Comptroller of the Treasury, March 2012)...

The Widget Effect: Our National Failure to Acknowledge and Act on Differences in Teacher Effectiveness - This report examines our pervasive and longstanding failure to recognize and respond to variations in the effectiveness of our teachers. At the heart of the matter are teacher evaluation systems which, in practice, tell us little about how one teacher differs from any other, except teachers whose performance is so egregiously poor as to warrant dismissal. This report describes the tendency of school districts to assume classroom effectiveness is the same from teacher to teacher. (Daniel Weisberg, Susan Sexton, Jennifer Mulher and David Keeling, New Teacher Project, 2009)...

Characteristics of Public School Districts in the United States: Results From the 2007–08 Schools and Staffing Survey - This report presents selected findings from the public school district data file of the 2007-08 Schools and Staffing Survey. Included tables address a multitude of issues, including those around teacher employment and tenure. (Paola Aritomi, Jared Coopersmith and Kerry Gruber, National Center for Education Statistics, June 2009)...