Research and Teacher Evaluation

Video Transcription

Hi, my name is Ashley. And today's lesson is titled research and teacher evaluation.

In today's lesson, we will look at the role that the teacher evaluation plays in today's education. We will also look at the impact of teachers. Lastly, we'll take a look at the importance of teacher evaluations.

What role do teacher evaluations play? There's research that supports that the impact that teachers have on students is greater than any other factor. Therefore, having highly qualified teachers that will provide effective instruction for students is very important in today's education. Effective teachers can meet the needs of students. In order to ensure that our schools are equipped with the most effective teachers, teacher evaluation is a tool to determine teacher effectiveness.

What impact do teachers have? According to Teaching for America's Future, a report by the National Commission on Teaching and America's Future, teachers knowledge and skills impacts students academics the most. School improvement is dependent upon keeping and recruiting effective teachers. This is the big one. I know, for example, there are some school divisions in some areas that have grants in order to get teachers more money for them to stay in certain areas.

And teachers having the resources they need is also a factor that affects school improvement. Schools that lack resources are at a disadvantage when compared to schools that have the resources they need.

According to John Hattie, who conducted an international meta-analysis of student achievement influences, teachers had the greatest effect sizes on impacting student learning. An effect size of 1.0 means student growth increases by 50%, which is remarkable. He also felt that teachers that gave feedback to students had an effect size of 1.13. That was followed by instructional quality with an effect size of 1.0.

Now let's take a look at the findings of the measures of effective teaching project study, and what that has to say about the impact teachers have on students. The most important piece of information that was found as a result of the study was teachers significantly impact student achievement. So as you can see through the research that we have discussed today, large evidence supports that teachers have a great impact on students. The measures of effective teaching study also use teacher evaluation to find the effectiveness of teachers through classroom observations and surveys completed by students, as well as academic gains made by the students.

What is the importance of teacher evaluations? As we have mentioned throughout today's lesson, the impact of teachers on students is great. Therefore, teacher evaluation models are such a powerful tool in determining the quality of teachers. These models must focus on improving the quality of teachers through coaching, mentoring, professional development opportunities, while avoiding punitive systems.

Now there might be some cases where some teachers might have to be put on an improvement plan based on observation and their performance. But an effective teacher evaluation system should help teachers become highly qualified and improve their teaching practices.

In order for the teacher to make improvements, the evaluation must be honest and true. And feedback and support must be given that will aid in improvements that need to be made. Teacher evaluation models are being used widely across the country, maybe even in your school building, and has been found that the majority of the teachers have been found to be highly qualified, even in the case where teachers have been hired without much training or certification.

In today's lesson, we looked at the role of teacher evaluations, and how they help determine teacher effectiveness. Research highly supports that teacher impact is so great. Therefore, teacher evaluation systems must be used appropriately and often to make sure that we are choosing the best educators for our students. Teacher evaluation models are not only good for determining qualified teachers, but it can assist teachers in improving their teaching practices.

As we bring this lesson to a close, go back and review the significance of utilizing a teacher evaluation model and the importance of using it for our students. To dive a little deeper and learn how to apply this information, be sure to check out the Additional Resources section associated with this video. This is where you'll find links targeted toward helping you discover more ways to apply this course material.