Working with researchers Prof. Morgaen Donaldson and Associate Prof. Eric Loken from the Neag School of Education, UConn has found so far that the applicant pools in 2021 and 2022 were significantly more diverse than prior years in terms of students’ racial and ethnic backgrounds, family incomes, and other factors.

“There has to be some happy medium there between finding assessments that will provide reliable information for parents, students, and teachers,” said Morgaen Donaldson, an associate professor at the University of Connecticut who researches educator evaluations, “and then having teachers set goals based on those assessments that are smart, realistic and context-specific, and can be part of their evaluation.”