Competing Strands Of Educational Reform Policy: Can Collaborative School Reform and Teacher Evaluation Reform Be Reconciled?

Both collaborative school reform and teacher evaluation reform show promise for improving teaching and learning. Yet, when enacted in schools, they have the potential to undermine one another. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to begin conceptualizing one avenue for reconciling these policies. We consider how future research might begin to develop measures to evaluate collaborative teaching, specifically teachers’ performance as a team engaged in collaboratively enhancing students’ learning. We urge policymakers, researchers and practitioners alike to take seriously the need to make space in the evaluation process for the assessment of team work in schools.