| What makes teachers effective, and how do you measure and cultivate it, especially in high-minority, high-poverty schools?
At the recent Civil Rights Research Roundtable, convened by the Warren Institute, researchers proposed very different answers – and often viewed their theories of action as mutually exclusive. Two major theories of action emerged at the roundtable, as reported by the Annenberg Institute for School Reform (AISR) executive director Warren Simmons: Performance Management Theory of Action – This lens emphasizes the importance of teachers’ educational background (SAT scores, class ranking in college) and performance characteristics (e.g., value-added contributions to student achievement, based on standardized test scores and compensation and evaluation histories) to describe teacher effectiveness. Furthermore, the performance management perspective tends to treat effective teaching as an individual endeavor and thus seeks solutions focused on enhancing the identification and distribution of effective teachers in high-minority, high-poverty schools. With this lens, the social, racial, cultural, cognitive, and linguistic histories and characteristics of students, practitioners, and communities are secondary, if not tertiary, considerations to understanding variations in teacher effectiveness. The reasoning of the performance management TOA goes something like this: If compensation and evaluation are tied to student achievement data, and schools are given the flexibility and authority to hire, assign, and fire teachers, and districts or systems are freed to reward effective schools and close low-performing schools, then teacher effectiveness will increase, along with student performance. Capacity Building Theory of Action – The other research voice and TOA present at the meeting grew out of an emphasis on the importance of instructional capacity building and the use of practice-centered criteria grounded in research on teaching and learning to define the characteristics of effective teaching. This research underscores the importance of pedagogical content knowledge; classroom management skills; understanding of students’ social, cultural, and economic backgrounds; understanding of cognitive and human development; ability to collaborate with peers; and ability to cultivate partnerships with parents and the broader community as critical components of effective teaching. The instructional capacity-building TOA reasons that if schools and school districts provide supports that build the capacity of teachers to address the elements of effective teaching, then student performance will increase and achievement gaps will narrow. In an AISR commentary, Warren Simmons calls on education stakeholders to take a more nuanced view that evaluates the assumptions, strengths and weaknesses of each approach to create a new theory of action upon which consensus can be built. To read Simmons’ insightful article (from which I have borrowed heavily in this post), see http://www.annenberginstitute.org/Commentary/index.php Core Education’s work with professional standards, educator evaluation design, professional development and educator effectiveness merges the two theories of action outlined above in an holistic way. For more about our services, see www.CoreEducationLLC.com |
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