Measuring Teacher Effectiveness
Early findings from Gates’ Measures of Effective Teaching (MET) project, which began last fall in the 2009-10 school year, were released last Friday. Full report here (pdf).
First, some background on MET: It’s a $45 million research study, led by Harvard researcher Tom Kane, that is trying to answer the all-important multiple measures question by determining which measures—or combination of measures—are best for assessing teacher effectiveness. The study involves about 3,000 teachers in 6 districts (NYC, Charlotte-Mecklenburg, Hillsborough FL, Memphis, Dallas, and Denver) and is focused on grades 4-8 math and ELA, and on high school Algebra I, ninth grade ELA and biology. The study has a long list of partners, including RAND, Stanford, University of Michigan, Dartmouth College, ETS, the Danielson Group, UVA, the New Teacher Center, Cambridge Education, NBPTS, and has a teacher advisory panel of 21 teachers who’ve been providing feedback on the project design.
Importantly, the study looks at 5 measures of teacher effectiveness (defining and then designing a study around