Today, school systems are scrambling to determine how “school” will look for the Fall 2020 academic term with the COVID-19 pandemic forcing unprecedented restrictions. Most conversations have been about maintaining safety in schools and ensuring high-quality instruction, but re-configuring teacher evaluation also should be a focus of our planning.

In the new, COVID-19 era of education, state educational agencies must determine how to move forward as many schools move to implement hybrid virtual and in-person instructional models. Several states not only have delayed or suspended their assessments programs, but they also have suspended their teacher evaluation systems temporarily. There are many unknowns, yet administrators cannot afford to extend program suspensions. They must begin crafting alternative methods to evaluate teachers’ effectiveness.

So, where do we begin? For starters, we need to realize that evaluating online teachers is not a new challenge for school leaders. We already know how to do evaluations, and several groups, including the International Society for technology in Education (IStE), have developed evaluation standards for online learning programs. The key now is to build upon existing foundations as we develop evaluation methods that fit the unique learning environment associated with the COVID-19 crisis and that will answer the fundamental question—Is what we’re doing working?

We also need to reflect on possible challenges in this new context. For example, I came up with a few questions after some directed thought. How do you conduct a walk-through in a virtual class? How do you gauge student engagement or determine quality teacher monitoring of student learning? How do you navigate the complexity of evaluating teachers instructing a classroom of students face-to-face while facilitating a group of students online in both synchronous and asynchronous configurations?

Traditionally, policymakers are interested in gains in standardized test scores (if the testing system will operate as usual). However, administrators will have to look for other indicators of success, such as whether the new hybrid virtual models are addressing the needs of traditionally at-risk subgroups, or producing outcomes that are only indirectly related to test scores, like student engagement.

Now is the time to begin planning for new teacher evaluation methods that will meet the needs of teachers within our new educational reality. The bottom line is, our measurement and evaluation systems will have to be based on factors that are within our power of influence or control in addition to the outcomes of student achievement scores. To do this, we should be able to use aspects of existing teacher evaluation frameworks. However, with the impact of COVID-19 here to stay, we will need to reimagine educator evaluation to match the emerging classroom instruction and student assessment changes.