What Does It Mean to Be Ranked a “High” or “Low” Value-Added Teacher? Observing Differences in Instructional Quality Across Districts

Blazar, David; Litke, Erica; Barmore, Johanna

doi:10.3102/0002831216630407

Cited by 32 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 54 publications

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“…So too might high-quality instruction vary for specific populations of students, such as English learners or special education students. Indeed, prior research has demonstrated that student demographics are associated with both VAMs (Loeb, Soland, & Fox, 2014;Master, Loeb, Whitney, & Wyckoff, 2012) as well as instructional practices (Blazar, Litke, & Barmore, 2016;Grossman et al, 2014).The limited existing evidence around stability of instructional quality across student subpopulations suggests this is an important next step for research on observational instruments, particularly as they are used in high-stakes contexts. From processproduct research (Brophy et al, 1975;Rosenshine, 1970) to more contemporary work (Abedi, Hofstetter, & Lord, 2004;Cohen & Grossman, 2016;Goldenberg, 2008;Grossman et al, 2014;Ladson-Billings, 2009), studies have found teachers' instructional approaches differ depending on the students.…”

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confidence: 99%

Building a More Complete Understanding of Teacher Evaluation Using Classroom Observations

Cohen

Goldhaber

2016

Educational Researcher

155

150

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Improving teacher evaluation is one of the most pressing but also contested areas of educational policy. Value-added measures have received much of the attention in new evaluation systems, but they can only be used to evaluate a fraction of teachers. Classroom observations are almost universally used to assess teachers, yet their statistical properties have received far less empirical scrutiny, in particular in consequential evaluation systems. In this essay, we highlight some conceptual and empirical challenges that are similar across these different measures of teacher quality. Based on a review of empirical research, we argue that we need much more research focused on observations as performance measures. We conclude by sketching out an agenda for future research in this area.Keywords: accountability; classroom research; educational policy; policy analysis; teacher assessment REVIEWS/ESSAySAUgUST/SEpTEMBER 2016 379Interestingly, given their prevalent use, we know surprisingly little about the statistical properties of classroom observations in consequential personnel decisions. Indeed, much of what we know is derived from extensive research of a large-scale research study-the Measures of Effective Teaching (MET) Project (cf. Kane & Staiger, 2012)-and it is unclear how these findings might translate when evaluation reform is put into practice (Goldhaber, 2015). Will real-world classroom observations differentiate among teachers? Will they be reliable? Will teachers receive actionable feedback, leading them to seek and receive high-quality professional development? The answers to questions like these are key to understanding how the use of observational measures of performance will affect the quality of the teacher workforce.In this article, we highlight some conceptual and empirical challenges that are similar across different measures of teacher performance. We focus on the existing validity evidence around classroom observations as evaluation measures, much of which is derived from research studies as opposed to real-world evaluation systems. We highlight what we know about the stability of observational measures across raters and educational contexts. We speculate on the implications of the extant literature, and we ask what additional kinds of evidence we would need about observations to feel confident observations could be featured in fair and useful evaluation systems. We attempt to answer some of these questions while describing the conceptual issues that arise when measuring teachers' classroom performance based on observations. Based on a review of empirical research, we argue that we need more research focused on observations as performance measures, particularly from authentic settings where observational performance measures are used in consequential evaluation systems, and we sketch out an agenda for future research. Given space constraints, our goal is not to provide a comprehensive synthesis of the extant literature around classroom observations. Such a review would be helpful but goes beyond th...

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confidence: 99%

Building a More Complete Understanding of Teacher Evaluation Using Classroom Observations

Cohen

Goldhaber

2016

Educational Researcher

155

150

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“…Whereas many have appraised the Finnish Model, comments and interpretations on the use of VAM usually consist to a great extent of question marks and cautions (American Educational Research Association, 2015;Baker et al, 2010;Darling-Hammond, 2015;Goldhaber, 2015). Recently, some researchers have drawn attention to the variation that emerges in teacher VAM rankings in relation to within and across different school districts (Blazar, Litke, & Barmore, 2016).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding Teacher Evaluation in Finland: A Professional Development Framework

Tarhan¹,

Karaman²,

Kemppinen³

et al. 2019

AJTE

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This study explores the characteristics of the teacher evaluation model in Finland. Highlighting the unique qualities of the Finnish case, we also compare these teacher evaluation practices with the increasingly applied value-added model (VAM) for teacher evaluation across the globe. Our analysis revealed that the Finnish Model prioritises teacher empowerment and professional development by carrying out bottom-up evaluation practices. With a clear focus on teacher empowerment and professional development, this framework substantially differs from accountability measures such as VAM, which emphasize rigid data collection procedures and the use of standardized test scores to hold teachers accountable based on their students' academic performance. This study also revealed that professional development endeavours of teachers are highlighted as the key elements in Finnish teacher evaluation. Ongoing needs analyses for professional development also form the basis for assessing teachers in Finland.

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“…Observing Differences in Instructional Quality Across Districts", can be found here: https://cepr.harvard.edu/publications/meaning-high-and-lowvalue-added-teaching-observing-differences-instructional. Our work also explored the comparability of testbased or value-added metrics across districts and the extent to which they capture variability in classroom practice (Blazar, D., Litke, E., & Barmore, J., 2016). We found positive though weak correlations between value-added and observation-based measures of teacher performance (Chin, M. & Goldhaber, D., 2015).…”

Section: Using Video To Advance Our Understanding Of Teacher Effectivmentioning

confidence: 90%

Using Tablets to Explore the Potential for Video-based Classroom Observations for Research and Professional Development

Blazar¹,

Gilbert²,

Herlihy³

et al. 2018

International Journal of Education in Mathematics, Science and Technology

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What Does It Mean to Be Ranked a “High” or “Low” Value-Added Teacher? Observing Differences in Instructional Quality Across Districts

Cited by 32 publications

References 54 publications

Building a More Complete Understanding of Teacher Evaluation Using Classroom Observations

Building a More Complete Understanding of Teacher Evaluation Using Classroom Observations

Understanding Teacher Evaluation in Finland: A Professional Development Framework

Using Tablets to Explore the Potential for Video-based Classroom Observations for Research and Professional Development

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