The Challenges of Measuring Teacher Effectiveness

Learning Point Associates and Public Agenda recently released a report titled “Retaining Teacher Talent: Convergence and Contradictions in Teachers’ Perceptions of Policy Reform Ideas” that focuses on how teachers define effectiveness in contrast to policy makers and researchers. The report concludes that teachers disagree with each other and with policy makers and researchers on good indicators of effectiveness. These findings are significant as Congress begins to consider Obama Administration proposals that seek to more clearly define teacher effectiveness under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act and put in place programs that reward teachers based on those definitions.

Most interestingly, authors Jane Coggshall, Amber Ott, and Molly Lasagna find that 56 percent of surveyed teachers believe that student performance on standardized tests is a good or excellent indicator of teacher effectiveness. This finding initially seems surprising given that teachers’ unions typically oppose using test scores to measure effectiveness. However, far higher percentages of teachers prefer other indicators of effectiveness. For example, 92 percent of teachers said student engagement was a good or excellent indicator of teacher effectiveness and 72 percent said individual student learning compared to other students was a good or excellent indicator.

Similarly, the authors find that only 8 percent of surveyed teachers believe that linking teacher rewards, such as compensation, with student performance would significantly improve teacher effectiveness. In contrast, several research studies cited in the report concluded that performance-based pay is a promising way to improve teacher retention and perhaps even student achievement.

There is another surprising finding in the report. Common perception, including a previous survey conducted by the same authors, suggests that younger teachers are generally more receptive to efforts that link teacher pay with performance. Yet the authors of the new report find that 50 percent of teachers with less than five years of experience feel that standardized test scores are a fair or poor indicator of effectiveness, while only 32 percent of teachers with more than 20 years experience feel the same. If younger teachers favor merit pay, why are they so hesitant about using student achievement data to do so?[1]

This new study clarifies the deep divide between teachers – the most valuable and important resource in the classroom – and policymakers when it comes to measuring teacher effectiveness. This is particularly important as the Obama Administration proposes significant changes to federal programs that aim to improve teacher distribution, retention, and quality through programs like merit pay and recommends that the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act require states to create and implement a definition of an “effective teacher.” Without teacher buy-in during this process, these significant policy changes will likely prove politically impossible.