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Developing Effective Teaching:
When Assessment is a Gift
The Need for More
Powerful Teaching
© Linda Darling-Hammond 2010
What Do Effective and Equitable
Teachers Know and Do?
© Linda Darling-Hammond 2010
Effective Teachers…
Engage students in active learning
Create intellectually ambitious tasks
Use a variety of teaching strategies
Assess student learning
continuously and adapt
teaching to student needs
Create effective scaffolds and supports
Provide clear standards, constant feedback, and
opportunities for revising work
Develop and effectively manage a collaborative
classroom in which all students have membership.
© Linda Darling-Hammond 2010
So How Should We Assess and
Support Effective Teaching?
Effective Teaching Qualities are
Embedded in Teaching Standards
National Board for Professional Teaching
Standards (1987)
-- Portfolio used to certify accomplished teaching
Interstate New Teacher Assessment and
Support Consortium (INTASC) (1990)
-- Adopted in > 40 states
-- Basis of new licensing assessments
-- Recently revised to reflect Common Core
Standards
6
Standards-Based Evaluations
Use structured observations of
teaching, based on professional
standards, along with other evidence of
practice (e.g. lesson plans, student work)
Are related to student learning gains
Help teachers become more effective
when they are the source of feedback
(Milanowski, Kimball, & White, 2004).
7
Why Focus on Performance
Assessments?
In order to improve teaching we need to:
• Move beyond limited measures of teacher
qualifications for personnel decisions
• Create means for examining teaching that
are related to effectiveness
• Develop systems that are reliable,
consistent, and powerful in shaping
preparation, professional development,
and practice
What Performance
Assessments Offer
• Valid and stable evidence to evaluate
teacher effectiveness
• A lever for improving teacher learning
• An adjunct or alternative to student
test score measures that are
-- volatile across years, courses, tests
-- associated with student differences
as much as teaching differences
Concerns about Value-Added
Measures of Teacher Effectiveness
The research base is currently insufficient
to support the use of VAM for high-stakes
decisions about individual teachers or
schools.
– RAND Corporation
VAM estimates of teacher effectiveness …
should not used to make operational
decisions because such estimates are far
too unstable to be considered fair or
reliable.
– National Research Council
10
% of Teachers Whose
Effectiveness Ratings Change …
By at least By at least By at least
1 decile
2 deciles 3 deciles
Across
models*
56-80%
12-33%
0-14%
Across
courses*
85-100%
54-92%
39-54%
Across
years*
74-93%
45-63%
19-41%
*Depending on the model
11
One Extreme Case:
An English language arts teacher
10
8
6
4
2
0
Decile Rank Y1
Decile Rank Y2
80
60
Y1
Y2
40
20
0
% ELL
% Lowincome
Not a beginning
teacher
Teaching English I
both years
Estimates control for
students’:
Prior achievement
Demographics
School fixed
effect
%Hispanic
12
This is not unusual:
Teacher ratings change for most teachers
Consider classification of teachers into 5
categories (A-F) in two consecutive years.
Grade in
first year:
A
A
F
A
Grade in second year:
B
B
C
C
D
D
F
F
Average across 5 districts. Grades A-F correspond to quintiles 1-5. Source: Sass (2008).
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How Should we Evaluate
Teacher Effectiveness?
Combine Evidence of Practice, Performance,
and Outcomes in an Integrated Evaluation
System that looks at
Teaching practice in relation to standards,
curriculum goals, and student needs
Student learning / growth at the classroom
and school level in relation to teaching
practices, curriculum goals, and student
needs.
© Linda Darling-Hammond 2010
Examine What Matters
Standards-based observation examining practices
that matter for effectiveness
Examination of curriculum plans, assignments, and
student work samples
Evidence of practices that support student learning
both in and outside of the classroom (including work
with parents & colleagues)
Evidence of student learning examined in relation to
curriculum, teaching, and student needs
© Linda Darling-Hammond 2010
Predictive Validity of
Performance Assessments
National Board Certification
-- Effect sizes of .04 to .20 (pass/fail)
Connecticut BEST portfolio
-- Effect size of .46 (4 point scale)
California PACT assessment
-- Effect size of .15 (44 point scale)
20 percentile point difference in
student achievement for the highest and lowest-scoring teacher
The Teacher Performance
Assessment (PACT)
Subject-Specific
Completed at end of student teaching/internship
“Teaching Event” includes
-- Plans for a standards-based unit of
instruction
-- Adapted for special needs students and ELs
-- Videotaped instruction with commentaries
-- Evidence of student learning during unit
-- Overall analysis of learning and teaching
Reliably scored by trained assessors
© Linda Darling-Hammond 2010
A Focus on Student Learning
• Justification of teaching plans for different
learners, including ELL and special education
students
• Attention to specific learning needs
• Video of candidate/student interactions
• Analysis of how students are learning both content
and academic language
• Commentaries explaining teaching outcomes and
decisions in relation to student learning
• Evaluation of student learning during unit taught
• Strategic changes in practice based on assessment
What Programs Learn from
the PACT Analyses
How candidates do:
On different aspects of teaching
In different subject areas
In comparison to other programs
Over time
With different kinds of supports
Scores by Teaching Dimension
and Institution
3.50
3.00
3.03
2.95
3.00
2.92
2.83
2.78
2.50
Score
2.00
1.50
1.00
0.50
0.00
Total MIS
Planning
Instruction
Assessment
Reflection
Acad Language
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
PACT Scores by Subject Area
Total MIS
Planning
Instruction
Assessment
Reflection
Language
4
3. 5
3
2. 5
2
1. 5
1
0. 5
0
E ngl i s h/ Lang. A r t s
M at h
Hi s t or y / Soc . Sc i .
Sc i enc e
Wor l d Language
Teacher Education
Programs Learn … And change:
Courses
The learning sequence
Clinical practice opportunities
Supports for candidates
Resulting in…
A more shared vision of teaching
Increased articulation across
courses, clinical work, and roles
Structural changes to support
coherence and connections
Teacher Educators Learn
This [scoring] experience…has forced
me to revisit the question of what
really matters in the assessment of
teachers, which – in turn – means
revisiting the question of what really
matters in the preparation of
teachers.
Cooperating Teachers
Reflect on Practice
[The scoring process] forces you to be
clear about “good teaching;” what it
looks like, sounds like. It enables you
to look at your own practice
critically/with new eyes.
Induction Programs Extend
Teacher Learning
As an induction program coordinator, I
have a much clearer picture of what
credential holders will bring to us and
of what they’ll be required to do. We
can build on this.
© Linda Darling-Hammond 2010
Policy Uses of Teacher
Performance Assessments
• Create robust indicators of effective
teaching practices across the career
• Create a means to manage, analyze,
and report data about teacher
outcomes over the career continuum
• Guide teacher education improvement
and more focused induction, PD
• Strengthen accreditation
Policy Uses of TPA Data
• Provide an evidence-based method
for making personnel decisions
regarding licensure, hiring, promotion
to mentor / lead teacher status
• Support license reciprocity
• Support a National Teacher License
and recruitment incentives for
effective teachers
If We Took Teaching
Effectiveness Seriously,
We Would…
Ensure high-quality, fully subsidized preparation and
mentoring for all beginners
Use teacher performance assessments to improve
preparation, licensure, and accreditation + induction
Study features of successful programs & create
incentives for other programs to adopt these features
Establish an infrastructure for sustained, practicebased collegial learning opportunities for all teachers
Provide equal access to teachers who are prepared,
certified, and supported in these more effective ways.
© Linda Darling-Hammond 2010