This paper reports on ongoing research aimed at examining recent policy and practice in Teacher Performance Appraisal in Portugal. It seeks to evaluate the implementation of a new policy on teacher performance appraisal for teachers in elementary and secondary schools, after the publication of the Decree-Law no15/2007, 19th January, and subsequent legal texts. In many countries, the concern of the governments to raise the standards of teaching and to improve the quality of pupil learning has led to a number of reforms in schools and in teachers’ work. These have focused on increased accountability, amongst which is teacher performance management and appraisal (Timperley and Robinson, 1997, Midddlewood, and Cardno, 2001, Avalos, 2004; Avalos and Assael, 2006; Tuytens and Devos, (2008); Flores, in press). Portugal is no exception. In 2007, a new Teacher Career Statute was issued stipulating the existence of two categories of teachers (senior teachers, i. e., professores titulares and classroom teachers, i. e., professores) - the former, apart from teaching, are responsible for coordinating roles at school and supervision and evaluation of other teachers. Thus, with the new legislation the principles of differentiation and hierarchy were introduced along with evaluation mechanisms. These changes were not without controversy. The protests from the part of the teachers and unions included two demonstrations in the streets in Lisbon with over 100.000 teachers protesting against the new teacher performance appraisal system. The research project presented in this paper seeks to understand the ways in which headteachers, heads of department, assessors and teachers evaluate the new policy on teacher performance appraisal; to analyse the ways in which they rate different aspects of the implementation of the new policy; to analyse the ways in which they look at the role of leadership in the implementation of the new policy; and to understand the effects of the implementation of the new policy on teacher performance appraisal both upon teachers and schools.

Two case studies were carried out in two schools. Data were collected through questionnaires, semi-structured interviews and field notes.

Teachers claim that this model is too bureaucratic due to the amount of meetings, grids and other paperwork they have to comply with. They are also critical of lack of training and specific competencies required of evaluators. This will be discussed in the light of a context characterized by bureaucracy, centralization and uniformity. Research findings will be explored further in the paper.