Do We Know a Successful Teacher When We See One? Experiments in the Identification of Effective Teachers

The authors report on three experiments designed to (a) test under increasingly more favorable conditions whether judges can correctly rate teachers of known ability to raise student achievement, (b) inquire about what criteria judges use when making their evaluations, and (c) determine which criter...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of teacher education 2011-09, Vol.62 (4), p.367-382
Main Authors: Strong, Michael, Gargani, John, Hacifazlioğlu, Özge
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Academic Achievement
California
Classroom Observation Techniques
Definitions
Effectiveness
Evaluation Criteria
Experiments
Grade 4
Grade 5
Identification
Interrater Reliability
Methods
Predictor Variables
Quality of education
Teacher Effectiveness
Teacher Evaluation
Teacher evaluations
Teachers, Rating of
Tennessee
Test Construction
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Summary:The authors report on three experiments designed to (a) test under increasingly more favorable conditions whether judges can correctly rate teachers of known ability to raise student achievement, (b) inquire about what criteria judges use when making their evaluations, and (c) determine which criteria are most predictive of a teacher’s effectiveness. All three experiments resulted in high agreement among judges but low ability to identify effective teachers. Certain items on the established measure that are related to instructional behavior did reliably predict teacher effectiveness. The authors conclude that (a) judges, no matter how experienced, are unable to identify successful teachers; (b) certain cognitive operations may be contributing to this outcome; (c) it is desirable and possible to develop a new measure that does produce accurate predictions of a teacher’s ability to raise student achievement test scores.
ISSN:0022-4871
1552-7816
DOI:10.1177/0022487110390221