Comptroller's Office Studies Student Growth Portfolios for Teacher Evaluation

The Tennessee Comptroller’s Office has released a new report that evaluates the use of portfolios in Tennessee’s teacher evaluation system.

Portfolios contain collections of student work, selected by teachers, from two points in time during the school year to show students’ progress in mastering specified state academic standards. The portfolios are scored by fellow teachers, and the scores are then incorporated into a teacher’s overall annual evaluation.

The state requires local school districts to factor in portfolio scores as part of annual evaluations for some teachers: primarily pre-k and...