Is it a good idea for teachers to rate their colleagues? Experiments with peer review in the United States provide insight into a new trend in teacher evaluation and development. The process is intended to raise teaching standards by leveraging teacher interactions in the continuing refinement of professional practice.

The Toledo Public School District initiated a pace-setting peer-evaluative system in 1981. It was designed to detect and screen-out beginning teachers who have little aptitude for classroom teaching and to assist experienced teachers bring their work to professional standards. The Toledo plan emphasizes a rigorous audit of practice, including teaching procedures, classroom management, subject-area knowledge, personal characteristics and professional responsibility. In the past decade, an increasing number of districts have introduced similar programs.

Although peer assistance programs differ in their operation, they are generally characterized by five features:

• Governing Board. A governing board of school district and union appointees oversees the program. The governing board hears the evaluative recommendations of the consulting teacher in making employment recommendations to the superintendent and school board.
• Consulting Teacher. The consulting teacher conducts a systematic review, with a mixture of classroom observations and follow-up conferences, to assess a teacher's progress in meeting district performance standards. The evaluation focuses on mutually set goals based on detailed criteria and the teacher's progress toward these goals. In some districts the consulting teacher is relieved from classroom duties and offered extra compensation for this assignment. The Los Angeles School District employs fourteen full-time teachers as peer review consultants.
• Intern Program. During their probationary period, beginning teachers are paired with a consulting teacher who may be assigned up to 10 interns and spend up to 120 hours with each. Formative and summative evaluations are generated during these interactions.
• Intervention Program. When an experienced teacher's performance has reached unacceptable levels, school administrators and teacher union representatives meet with the governing board to discuss intervention and meet with the teacher to deliver official notification that intervention is being considered. The teacher has the right to appeal the intervention. When intervention is authorized, a consulting teacher is assigned with the goal of coaching the teacher toward a satisfactory level of teaching craftsmanship. Unlike the internship program, the intervention program ends when the consulting teacher decides.
• Alternate Program. Experienced successful teachers may be permitted to design their own teaching goals and evaluation strategies based on peer coaching, classroom action research, and participation in structured staff development.

The administrator becomes the ‘gatekeeper’ by referring candidates to the peer review program. The administrator is relieved of traditional supervisory duty, while consulting teachers assume responsibility for the evaluative processes and judgements. Historically, few administrator evaluations resulted in teacher dismissals, as teachers may successfully appeal on the grounds they represent only a few hours of classroom observation. Dismissal recommendations by a consulting teacher are built into a rigorous evaluative process, and disputes are rare.

For teachers, the shift is from classroom isolation to peer interaction. Intensive coaching becomes the vehicle for honing techniques and establishing and enforcing standards of excellence. By taking ownership of the craft of teaching and the quality of its practitioners, teachers move towards professional status.

The union is required to balance the protection of individual teachers with the protection of teaching standards. It is propelled to view teacher development as a key responsibility of the profession. Measuring and rewarding teacher quality and growth may become an integral part of the collective agreement.

In the Toledo School District, 175 intern teachers were evaluated: 7 contracts were not renewed, 2 were terminated and 8 teachers resigned. In 1999, the Cincinnati Public School District dismissed 13 beginning teachers and 4 veterans for poor teaching performance.

Teacher quality holds the key for raising student achievement. The impact of peer review programs on teacher quality is worth careful monitoring.