Foundation: Growth in test scores is sign of good teacher
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Discussion PolicyFriday, December 10, 2010; 2:58 PM
While debate rages in the education world about how to measure effective teaching - or whether it is even possible to do so - research funded by a prominent advocate of data-driven analysis has found that growth in annual student test scores is a reliable sign of a good teacher.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation reported that and other preliminary findings Friday from a $45 million study of teacher effectiveness in several cities.
"In every grade and subject we studied, a teacher's past success in raising student achievement on state tests was one of the strongest predictors of his or her ability to do it again," said Vicki Phillips, who oversees elementary and secondary education grants for the foundation.
The findings arrive as state and local officials across the country are retooling teacher evaluation in an effort to make the annual ratings of teachers more objective than