Increasingly, our public schools are more plagued with issues involving teacher quality, accountability, and student performance. But what metrics are currently being used to evaluate student performance — and, should student performance on the most commonly used metrics be the primary indicator of teacher quality? Obviously, if one is flawed, the other will be skewed; an important factor in education reform in the next decade will be finding more accurate and efficient ways of measuring educator and student performance.
In general, the greatest evidence points to the fact that effective teachers are capable of bringing about significantly greater learning gains in their students when compared in some way with their less effective colleagues. Currently, most of this evidence is based on a “value added” model for the analyses of large sets of data linking individual students’ test scores to teachers.
How important are test scores and class assignment performance to teachers in measuring student growth? And what are the perceived benefits of each type of the most commonly applied metrics? Below, the infographic shows us, from an educator’s point of view, what are considered to be most useful measures. Students’ individual factors such as family background, home security, and income brackets are not directly addressed in these measures. Click to expand the graphic:
