Examining Teacher Effectiveness Using Classroom Observation Scores: Evidence From the Randomization of Teachers to Students

• Published in: Educational evaluation and policy analysis Vol. 37; no. 2; pp. 224 - 242
• Main Authors: Garrett, Rachel, Steinberg, Matthew P.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01.06.2015; American Educational Research Association
• Subjects: Academic Achievement; Classroom observation; Classroom Observation Techniques; Colorado; Compliance (Legal); Correlation; Correlation analysis; Education policy; Educational Policy; Educational Quality; Evaluation Methods; Evidence; Florida; Grade 4; Grade 5; Grade 6; Grade 7; Grade 8; New York; Noncompliance; North Carolina; Outcome Measures; Protocol Analysis; Protocol Materials; Scores; Student Characteristics; Teacher Effectiveness; Teacher Evaluation; Teacher evaluations; Teacher Placement; Tennessee; Texas; North Carolina; New York; Florida; Colorado; Tennessee; Texas; teacher evaluation; teacher effectiveness; education policy; Framework for Teaching (FFT)
• ISSN: 0162-3737; 1935-1062
• DOI: 10.3102/0162373714537551

Despite policy efforts to encourage multiple measures of performance in newly developing teacher evaluation systems, practical constraints often result in evaluations based predominantly on formal classroom observations. Yet there is limited knowledge of how these observational measures relate to student achievement. This article leverages the random assignment of teachers to classrooms from the Measures of Effective Teaching (MET) study to identify teacher effectiveness using scores from the Framework for Teaching (FFT) instrument, one of the most widely used classroom observation protocols. While our evidence suggests that teacher performance, as measured by the FFT, is correlated with student achievement, noncompliance with randomization and the modest year-to-year correlation of a teacher's FFT scores constrain our ability to causally identify effective teachers. Implications for policy and practice are discussed.