The most important thing is advancing student outcomes. This meant creating a world where the focus of adults in the system was to advance student outcomes, and where the conversations with district and school leaders shifted from a focus on money and conditions to instruction, learning, and academic outcomes.

The highest-performing teachers, principals, and superintendents want feedback. They want to be told the things they can do to get to an even higher level.

As a result, the level of focus on academic results shifted pretty significantly. It also shifted the kind of people who work in the system.

As we implemented teacher evaluations, we heard the mythology that teachers were leaving and quitting the system. We would hear from superintendents and legislators that teachers are so upset, they’re all quitting and leaving.

But an interesting thing happened when we looked at the data. Teachers were leaving the system at exactly the same rate as before we started doing evaluations, except for teachers who were at the lowest level of student growth. The ones who were leaving had the lowest impact on improving student outcomes. They were leaving the system at twice the rate as teachers who had the highest impact on student growth.

Read the full interview with Kevin Huffman on evaluating teachers by Anne Wicks and William McKenzie at The 74