After investing three years and millions of dollars and scrutinizing thousands of teachers, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has determined that, yes, you can measure effective teaching.
In a report released Tuesday, the foundation outlines a broad recipe for doing just that. The ingredients include measuring student achievement, observing teachers and surveying student perceptions.
In 2009, the Gates foundation awarded $45 million to a half-dozen school districts across the country, including Denver Public Schools, to embark on its massive Measures of Effective Teaching project.
DPS’s share of that money was $880,000, and the district had 100 participating teachers in grades 4-9.
Initially, Denver teachers who volunteered for the project were offered a $1,500 stipend. One of the measurement methods was the videotaping of teachers’ interaction with students in the classroom.
Nationally, the study examined how much to weigh each of the three evaluation elements, and researchers determined that state standardized tests should account for about one third of the grade, said Steve Cantrell, a Gates foundation research officer.
Another potentially touchy element, the observation of teachers, is probably best done by both an outside observer along with an administrator from the teacher’s school, Cantrell said.
“It is possible for school personnel to produce valid observations, even for teachers they know,” but the process is more reliable when there are two or more observers, Cantrell said.
DPS is in the process of crafting a teacher-evaluation system using results of the research.