The recent wave of new legislation affecting public school teachers has its roots, in part, in the budget shortfalls that have challenged states for the past several years. The first signs of fiscal troubles for many states became evident in 2008, and most instituted midyear budget reductions in 2009. In response, the U.S. Congress passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009 to offset state budget deficits. The federal government used the ARRA program to kick-start state economies by investing a total of $787 billion from 2009 to 2011 in several state and local government sectors, including education. Roughly $4.35 billion of ARRA funds also were reserved for awards in the federal Race to the Top (RTTT) competitive education program. To receive any federal funds linked to the ARRA or RTTT programs, states were required to meet a list of minimum criteria, including revising state statutes for particular educational policies. These funding restrictions have given policy-makers in many states a new incentive to transform their education statutes by altering policies affecting a number of common issues, including teacher evaluations, tenure, dismissal and compensation. This "Focus" report on teacher evaluation policies is the first in a series of reports on these bills. Of the 11 states and the District of Columbia that have won RTTT funding to date, six are SREB states (Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, North Carolina and Tennessee). Some SREB states modified their evaluation systems prior to RTTT; other SREB states made the most of the opportunity to restructure their systems with federal funding assistance. In total, in 2010 and 2011, legislatures in seven SREB states approved changes to their teacher evaluation systems. Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, Maryland, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Virginia amended previous policies or established new teacher evaluation systems. (Contains 2 tables.)