D.C.'s classy new teacher-evaluation system, IMPACT, is just gaining traction (even as the new Mayor is hinting that he wants it redone). But the data generated through its process are already finding other uses. The evaluation tool, which grades teachers based on classroom observations and value-added measurements, has thus far been used to fire instructors ranked ineffective (seventy got the boot under Michelle Rhee's reign) as well as to reward those in the upper echelons (Rhee also doled out performance-based bonuses to 600 teachers). But District education officials are beginning to think bigger. Most encouragingly, they're noodling ways to use IMPACT data to assess teacher-preparation programs, tracking both stellar and shoddy teachers back to the source. Never mind about the NCTQ/U.S. News and World Report assessment of education schools; D.C. is generating a homegrown ranking system all of its own.
A version of this post originally appeared in this week's Education Gadfly. To sign up for the Gadfly, click here.