Under state law, all of New York's roughly 700 school districts must develop a system for evaluating teachers based on a mix of standardized test scores, classroom observations and other measures.

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And we should grant our educators the flexibility to teach with creativity and passion in the classroom and not just teaching to the test.

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Its curriculum-management software matches classroom lessons to state standards and can generate test items for on-the-fly diagnostic assessment.

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The laboratory is much like an old chemistry classroom, somewhat cramped for space and full of test tubes and serious looking people in white coats.

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In February, state officials reached an agreement with the union that allows up to 40% of a teacher's rating to be based on student test scores and 60% on other measures, such as classroom observations and, potentially, student and parent surveys.

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For example, personal care workers whose employers receive Medicare reimbursements are required to pass a competency test and federal law recommends they undergo at least 75 hours of classroom and on-the-job training under the supervision of a registered nurse.

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The remainder can be classroom or other work, and districts have the option of including an additional standardized test.

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Drawing input from 3, 000 classroom teachers, the project highlighted several measures that schools should use to assess teacher performance, including test data, student surveys and assessments by trained evaluators.

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Math game developer Sokikon, for example, references U.S. Department of Education-funded research correlating its games to progress in test scores and motivation to learn math (up to 15% improvement in one Arizona classroom).

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