Teacher evaluation systems in most states, including Missouri, lack differentiation, have scarce and low-value feedback, and create a low bar for new teachers.
This is a missed opportunity. Meaningful teacher evaluations would not only be valuable for helping teachers, but it also would enable policy solutions such as merit pay or targeted pay incentives to teach at high-need schools—i.e., the types of policies we need to modernize the teacher labor market.
Our state could benefit from using an effective evaluation model like the Tennessee Educator Acceleration Model (TEAM). TEAM provides meaningful differentiation, helpful and specific coaching, and gives teeth to the tenure process. When TEAM was first introduced in 2012, only 38 percent of Tennessee teachers believed that it would improve teacher performance. That number quickly rose to over 75 percent.
Recent research found that TEAM strongly improves student performance through a combination of helpful feedback and employment incentives. For example, rather than granting all (or virtually all) teachers tenure after three years, Tennessee requires teachers to be highly rated in their fourth and fifth years of teaching to earn tenure. Teachers who score poorly in consecutive years can lose tenure.
An evaluation system like TEAM in Missouri could also help recruit the best teachers to where they are needed most. Districts like Riverview Gardens and Hickman Mills struggle with very low academic achievement and filling teaching vacancies. In the 2024–25 school year, only 5 percent of Riverview Gardens’ students scored proficient in mathematics. Offering targeted pay incentives to highly rated teachers willing to work in Riverview Gardens or Hickman Mills could create an advancement opportunity and encourage top teachers to move to struggling districts.
However, absent high-quality, differentiated teacher evaluations, these types of reforms are not possible. If we want to get serious about fixing our problems with the teacher labor market, we need a better teacher evaluation system.
