Transition to TEAM: First-Year Reflections on Implementing a New Teacher Evaluation System in Tennessee

In 2011, Tennessee became one of the first states to implement a comprehensive teacher evaluation system: The Tennessee Educator Acceleration Model (TEAM). In this brief we summarize some of the key lessons Tennessee officials learned during their first year of implementation. These include: 1) Committing to continuous improvement; 2) Prioritizing the training of evaluators; 3) Not letting the perfect be the enemy of the good; 4) Responding to stakeholder questions; and 5) Distributing decision-making.

We based this brief on an event we held with the Reform Support Network, in collaboration with the Tennessee Department of Education, in Nashville, TN. The event invited other state leaders to hear Tennessee officials speak about their experiences implementing TEAM.