Gates Report on Student Surveys Oversells Strengths, Ignores Weaknesses
Gates Report on Student Surveys Oversells Strengths, Ignores Weaknesses
Reference Publication:
Review of Asking Students About Teaching | National Education Policy Center
Contact:
William J. Mathis, (802) 383-0058, wmathis@sover.net
Eric M. Camburn, (608) 263-3697, camburn@wisc.edu
URL for this press release: http://tinyurl.com/ayexemg
BOULDER, CO (November 15, 2012) – A recent report from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s “Measures of Effective Teaching” (MET) Project presents advice on administering and using information from student surveys to evaluate teachers and provide feedback to teachers. A new review, however, finds that the report doesn’t provide sufficient justification for many of its conclusions.
Professor Eric M. Camburn of the University of Wisconsin-Madison reviewed Asking Students about Teaching for the Think Twice think tank review project. The review is published by the National Education Policy Center, housed at the University of Colorado Boulder School of Education.
Camburn’s own research focus is on instructional improvement, particularly in urban schools, and he has studied the use of survey methods to measure school improvement outcomes.
Asking Students about Teaching seeks to establish that student surveys provide valid evidence usable to evaluate teachers. The report then offers guidance about optimal practices for using and acting on such surveys.
Camburn agrees that student surveys are potentially useful and that the report “contains many practical pieces of advice that are sensible and worth putting into practice.”
He cautions, however, that the report’s claims of a strong relationship between student survey results and