This page includes publications and videos from KDP partners on classroom observations, student perception surveys, and use of multiple measures of effective teaching.
Classroom Observations
Better Feedback for Better Teaching: A Practical Guide to Improving Classroom Observations
Date: 2016
Organization: Jossey-Bass
This book details how to build and improve a system for observer training, assessment, and monitoring so that all teachers can benefit from accurate and meaningful feedback. Its guidance comes from key partners in the Measures of Effective Teaching (MET) project, and from states, districts, and charter management organizations at the leading edge of implementing quality classroom observations. Copies may be purchased from Amazon, or any major book dealer.
Better Feedback for Better Teaching
Building Trust in Observations: A Blueprint for Improving Systems to Support Great Teaching
Date: 2014
Organization: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
School systems can use this report to create their own plans for continual improvement of observation rubrics, observer training, observer assessment, and observation monitoring. Along with specific action steps for building capacity, a process is included to assess a system’s current status, and plan next steps.
Building Trust in Observations
What It Looks Like: Master Coding Video for Observer Training and Assessment: Policy and Practice Brief
Date: 2013
Organization: Clowder Consulting
Intended for teacher and school system leaders at the state and local level, this report describes how to recruit, train, and organize a group of master coders to align videos of classroom instruction with the components of an observation rubric. A four-page summary is available as a separate document.
What It Looks Like
“How Can Teachers Be Assured Trustworthy Results from Classroom Observations?”
Date: 2012
Organization: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Included in a brief of three culminating studies by the Measure of Effective Teaching (MET) project, this four-page summary explains how the reliability of teachers’ classroom observation scores increases when they factor in multiple observations by multiple observers.
How Can Teachers Be Assured Trustworthy Results from Classroom Observations?
Gathering Feedback for Teaching: Combining High-Quality Observations with Student Surveys and Achievement Gains
Date: 2012
Organization: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
This report explains the MET project’s initial research on classroom observations, including findings on the validity and reliability of five different observation instructions, and on the gains in validity from combining observations with other measures of effective teaching. Included are a series of recommendations for observation practice. A four page summary is available as a separate document. A technical report with the same title includes details on the five observation instruments studied, how observers in the study were trained and certified, and how observer certification criteria were defined.
Gathering Feedback for TeachingStudent Perception Surveys
Asking Students About Teaching: Student Perception Surveys and Their Implementation
Date: 2012
Organization: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
This report is meant for practitioners and policymakers who want to understand student surveys as potential tools for teacher evaluation and feedback, as well as the challenges and considerations posed by their implementation. Included are the MET-Tripod student survey items. A four-page summary is available as a separate document.
Asking Students About Teaching
“They Are the Experts.” A National Teacher of the Year Talks about Student Surveys
Date: 2012
Organization: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
In this two-page Q-and-A, Iowa teacher Sarah Brown Wessling explains how she used student perception surveys to improve her practice.
They Are the Experts
Measures of Effective Teaching: Student Feedback
Date: 2013
Organization: The Teaching Channel
In this seven-minute video produced by the Teaching Channel a Pittsburgh teacher explains how he has improved his practice with the use of feedback from student perception surveys.
Measures of Effective Teaching
The Thinking Behind Tripod
Date: 2013
Organization: Center for American Progress
In this six-minute video from a presentation at the Center for American Progress, Tripod developer Ron Ferguson explains the tool’s design, and what can be learned from its use.
The Thinking Behind TripodMultiple Measures for Teaching
Feedback for Better Teaching: Nine Principles for Using Measures of Effective Teaching
Date: 2012
Organization: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
This brief highlights a set of guiding principles from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to inform the design and implementation of high-quality teacher support and evaluation systems. These principles also are summarized in this five-minute video in which the Gates Foundation’s Steve Cantrell addresses the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education.
Feedback for Better Teaching - Nine Principles
The Quality Framework: A Tool for Building Evaluation Systems that Improve Instruction
Date: 2014
Organization: EducationCounsel
A 23-page self-assessment for state education leaders to use in planning next steps in implementing a quality teacher evaluation system that supports teaching for college and career readiness.
The Quality Framework
How Much Weight Should be Placed on Each Measure of Teaching?
Date: 2012
Organization: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Included in a brief on the MET project’s culminating research findings, this six-page summary explains the implications of using different methods to combine multiple measures of teaching for summative evaluation ratings.
How Much Weight Should Be Placed on Each Measure of Effective Teaching
Can Measures of Effective Teaching Identify Teachers Who Better Help Students Learn?
Date: 2012
Organization: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Included in a brief on the MET project’s culminating research findings, this four-page summary explains the MET project’s randomized experiment to determine the extent to which combined measures can be used to identify effective teaching.
Can Measures of Effective Teaching Identify Teachers Who Better Help Students Learn?
Teachers Discuss: Measures of Effective Teaching
Date: 2013
Organization: The Teaching Channel
This seven-minute video produced by the Teaching Channel features a round-table discussion among Pittsburgh teachers talking about their experience with different measures of effective teaching.
Teachers Discuss: Measures of Effective Teaching