Dovetailing with the study I discussed earlier this week, the Gates Foundation has released new research confirming that teaching frameworks like those designed by Charlotte Danielson and others accurately predict teacher effectiveness as measured both by student perceptions and student achievement scores.
Read the full study here and a summary of the study's findings from Education Week here.
There are multiple layers to the results, all worth pondering for their practical implications (including the unsurprising finding that the frameworks were far more accurate depending how many observers evaluated teachers using them). Perhaps the most significant finding, however, was the level of impact of high- versus low-performing teachers as measured by the frameworks on student achievement:
For instance, the study estimated that the difference in learning between students taught by teachers in the top and bottom quartiles of effectiveness, using just the Framework for Teaching as a measure, amounted to about 2½ months of growth in learning. But when the additional factors were included, the spread between top and bottom teachers’ effectiveness grew to 7½ months of learning, or almost a full year of schooling.
All of this is perhaps further confirmation that the school principal's single-biggest responsibility is to identify the performance level of teachers and then reward, celebrate, and encourage the best, providing ample structures for the middle performers to improve, and assist the rest in finding a new professional role. To do this, of course, principals need to be well-versed in the frameworks for effective teaching themselves and willing to engage in deep, meaningful dialogue with teachers about their practice on a daily basis.
I'll look forward to discussing these ideas and more in class this semester.
