Gates Study Offers Teacher-Effectiveness Clues

“Value added” gauges based on growth in student test scores and students’ perceptions of their teachers both hold promise as components of a system for identifying and promoting teacher effectiveness, according to preliminary findings from the first year of a major study.

The analysis , released today by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, shows that teachers’ value-added histories strongly predicted how they would perform in other classrooms or school years—as did students’ perceptions of their teachers’ ability to maintain order in the classroom and provide challenging lessons.

The findings are part of the Seattle-based foundation’s $45 million Measure of Effective Teaching study . The project seeks to identify the most accurate measures of superior teaching. ( "Multi-City Study Eyes Best Gauges of Good Teaching," ...