1. Qualities of Effective Teachers ©Stronge, 2014 All Rights Reserved
Stronge Teacher Performance Evaluation System
Qualities of Effective Teachers
It is important to understand the impact of effective teachers since the Stronge evaluation system was developed from the research on the qualities of effective teachers.
©Stronge, All Rights Reserved

2. Opening Questions 1. Why are effective teachers so important?
2. What is an effective teacher?
Lets start out by looking at two important questions:
First: Why do we need good teachers; and
Second: How do we know a good teacher when we see one?

3. Why are effective teachers so important?
Let’s start out looking at the first question. It’s important to understand the impact a teacher has on a child’s life--not only for the academic year, but for their the foreseeable future. There is strong evidence to indicate that the carry-over effect, or residual effect, as it’s called, will last for years to come.

4. What factor had the largest effect on student achievement?
Mixed Ability Grouping?
Class Size?
Prior Achievement?
The Teacher?
Let’s take a look at a quick quiz. I’d like for you to prioritize these four items in terms of their relative influence on student achievement. Which do you think has the largest effect?

5. What factor had the largest effect on student achievement?
Mixed Ability Grouping? 4
Class Size? 3
Prior Achievement? 2
The Teacher? 1
The answers are in reverse order. By far, a teacher has the greatest influence on student learning of all the factors that are within the control of a school. Most certainly, prior student achievement will make a difference, and so will class size; however, class size and the configuration of the classroom--whether it’s homogeneous or heterogeneous--will pale in comparison to the influence of the teacher. Teachers really do matter the most.
Wright, Horn, & Sanders, (1997)

6. Influences on Student Achievement: Explained Variance
Another way to consider this is how much of the variability of student achievement can be explained by various factors. The students control a great deal of the variability of their own learning. But of the factors within our control, teachers indeed have an extraordinary influence on how much and how well students learn.
Hattie, (2003)

7. One-year Impact of Effective vs. Less Effective Teachers
Let me highlight a study of the influence of an effective versus an ineffective teacher over the course of one academic year.

8. 5th Grade Reading: Predicted vs. Actual
(4,600 students; 300+ teachers)
Over-predicted: The prediction was 16 points higher than actual.
This student scored exactly as predicted.
Predicted Reading Score
Under-predicted: The prediction was 20 points lower than actual.
In this study (4,600 students-over 300 teachers), a research team led by Dr. James Stronge looked at their ability to predict achievement before children even entered a U.S. fifth grade classroom. They made predictions using a regression analysis, controlling for a variety of input variables like prior student achievement. They then predicted the actual achievement of those students. The scatterplot shows the comparison between the predicted achievement with the actual scores in reading.
There are two very interesting findings that emerged from this study. When the researchers looked across the study--when you follow the line of best fit--you can see that the vast majority of students performed as the research team expected. For example, a student they predicted would score at about 260--as shown by the red line-- actually scored about 260.
You’ll notice, however, that there are outliers on this scatterplot. For example, the black line show a student who was predicted to score a 268, but only scored a 252, so in this case they over-predicted. On the other hand, there were students that were predicted to score about 250--shown with the blue line, but they actually scored about 270, so they under-predicted their scores. What made the difference?
There could be any number of reasons why a student did not perform as well as expected. Maybe he was not feeling well that day. Maybe he just had a fight with his best friend. Maybe he had a poor teacher who did not push him to learn.
Similarly, there could be numerous reasons why a student performed well above expectations given his previous performance history. For example, maybe the student decided to really apply himself during the year, whereas in past years he had never studied. Maybe he used a computer program at home to give him extra practice in reading. Maybe he had an exceptional teacher who helped him to grow at above expected rates.
Individual students could have any number of reasons why may have performed better or worse than expected on a given day, but when looking at the average performance of all of the students a teacher has, trends start to emerge.
Actual Reading Score
The majority of predictions were accurate.
Stronge, Ward, & Grant, Journal of Teacher Education (2011)

9. Teacher Achievement Indices: Reading
20.00
30.00
40.00
50.00
60.00
70.00
Reading TAI 10 20 30
Count
The researchers tracked the students back to the teachers responsible for teaching them. Let’s say there were 15 students in a in a fifth grade reading teacher’s classroom. The researchers looked at the students’ scores individually. If a child scored exactly what they predicted, they would be rated at a 50. If they scored below what was predicted, they would be rated less than 50; if they scored above what was predicted, they were rated above 50.
The researchers then grouped the students’ scores together to get the Teacher Achievement Indices--or TAI--for the teacher. As you can see, when we look at all the TAIs together, it forms a bell-shaped curve, meaning that most teachers had students who scored close to what was expected. However, you can see that there were teachers at the far right side whose students performed much better than predicted--these were the highly effective teachers--and there were teachers at the far left side who students performed much worse than predicted. These were the very ineffective teachers.
Lower than predicted growth
Higher than predicted growth
Stronge, Ward, & Grant, Journal of Teacher Education (2011)

10. Dallas Research: Teacher Quality
4th Grade Math Achievement
Let me show you what happens when a child is placed with a highly effective teacher for three years in a row. This chart shows U.S. students who started out at about the same level in their math achievement. You can see that there is an almost 50 percentile point difference in their math achievement based on whether they had an effective or ineffective teacher for three years.
Dallas, Texas data: students per cohort
Comparison of 3 “highly effective” & 3 “ineffective” teachers (Jordan, Mendro, & Weerasinghe, 1997)

11. Dallas Research: Teacher Quality
4th Grade Reading Achievement
The same thing is found in reading. This is called an interaction effect, where students start on top, but after three years of ineffective teachers, they fall far behind their peers who were placed in effective teachers’ classes. Again, this is approximately a 40 percentile point difference based on the influence--the cumulative effect--of having those teachers over a period of time.
Dallas, Texas data: students per cohort
Comparison of 3 “highly effective” & 3 “ineffective” teachers (Jordan, Mendro, & Weerasinghe, 1997)

12. Sequence of Effective Teachers
Low
High
52-54
percentile
points difference
Look at the difference a series of ineffective teachers can have on a student’s achievement.
Sanders & Rivers (1996)

13. Sequence of Effective Teachers
Low
High 13
percentile
points difference
High
Consider the case where we place a child with a highly effective teacher for three years in a row versus if we place that child with two ineffective teachers and then an effective teacher. That effective teacher will not be able to compensate for the effects from the poor teachers.
Sanders & Rivers (1996)

14. Residual Effect
Two years of effective teachers could not remediate the achievement loss caused by one year with a poor teacher.
We call that the residual effect.
Mendro, Jordan, Gomez, Anderson, & Bembry (1998)

15. Time in School Year Needed to Achieve the Same Amount of Learning
1/4
1/2
3/4 1
25th Percentile
Teacher
75th Percentile
Years Needed
If we place a child in a bottom quartile teacher’s class--an ineffective teacher’s class--and it takes that child a full academic year to learn the knowledge and skills that he or she will learn...if we place that same child in a top quartile teacher’s class--a high performing teacher’s class--we find that that child learns the same knowledge and skills in three-quarters of the time.
Leigh, Economics of Education Review (2010)

16. Time in School Year Needed to Achieve the Same Amount of Learning
1/4
1/2
3/4 1
10th Percentile
Teacher
90th Percentile
Years Needed
The impact is even more pronounced when we compare a teacher with very low effectiveness versus a teacher with very high effectiveness.
Leigh, Economics of Education Review (2010)

17. Annual Student Achievement Gains
Consider this comparison. If we reduce class size in a primary grade--say for students who are 6, 7, or 8 years old--and if we reduce that class size from a 24:1 ratio to a 15:1 student-teacher ratio, we can expect achievement to increase about 7-8 percentile points. On the other hand, if we put a student in a class with a 75th percentile teacher versus a 25th percentile teacher, we can expect achievement to increase about 30 percentile points.
Class Size Reduction:
24:1 to 15:1
Teacher Quality Improvement:
25th vs. 75th percentile
Barber, M., & Mourshed, M. (2007). How the world’s best-performing school systems come out on top. London: McKinsey & Company. Retrieved from Education_report.pdf; Stronge, J.H., Ward, T.J., Tucker, P.D., & Grant, L.W., in preparation

18. Spillover Effect
Student achievement rises across a grade when a high-quality teacher comes on board: one-tenth to one-fifth the impact of replacing the students’ own teacher
Another important issue to consider is the spillover effect. It means that when you hire a highly-able teacher, not only does achievement go up in that teacher’s classroom, but it also goes up in surrounding teachers’ classes who are working with that highly effective teacher. It goes up as much as 10-20% of the amount that would be occurring in that effective teacher’s class. That’s a spillover effect.
Jackon & Bruegmann, American Economic Journal: Applied Economics (2009)

19. What is an effective teacher?
Now let’s briefly look at a second question. What is an effective teacher? We must begin here if we’re going to improve performance in our schools.

20. The Enigma
We have to unpack the puzzle of what makes a good teacher good.

21. Qualities of Effective Teachers
The Person
Background
Prerequisites
Classroom Management & Instruction
Organizing for Instruction
Implementing Instruction
Job Responsibilities and Practices
Effective Teachers
Monitoring Student Progress & Potential
This is one model for considering teacher effectiveness. It’s a model frequently used in research. This model considers a teacher’s background factors, such as educational attainment, experience, verbal ability--referred to as prerequisites--along with the teacher as a person (is he or she caring, approachable, enthusiastic, and so forth). One must also consider their practice in the classroom. Do they manage the classroom well, do they use data-driven planning, do they use effective strategies, and how do they monitor student progress and student achievement?
Stronge, Qualities of Effective Teachers, ASCD (2007)
Diagram used with the Permission of Linda Hutchinson, Doctoral Student, The College of William and Mary

22. Prerequisites of Effective Teachers
Which teacher factor is a strong predictor of student achievement gains?
Teacher experience
Teacher level of education
Type of teacher certification
Look at these three teacher factors. Which one is a strong predictor of student gains?
If you said none of them, you are correct…but aren’t these the areas upon which we usually base our teacher compensation? X

23. Prerequisite Characteristics
In fact, a teacher’s background characteristics only account for 3% of the influence teachers have on student achievement. The other 97% comes from other teacher characteristics.
In fact, these prerequisite characteristics account for only about 3% of what makes a teacher effective.
(Aaronson, Barrow, & Sanders, 2007)

24. The Teacher as a Person
Write a word or phrase to describe your most memorable teacher:
Now let’s look at another area--the teacher as a person. Write a word or phrase that best describes one of the most effective teachers you ever had. Visualize that teacher--think about that teacher--and jot down a word or phrase that best describes them.

25. Which of these qualities is closest to your response?
Used cooperative learning
Gave great tests
Maintained control of the classroom
Had a major in mathematics
Cared about me
Made learning fun
Pushed me to succeed
One answer could be, My teacher used cooperative learning. How many of you responded like that? Not many, I suspect. How about, “My teacher gave great tests”? I doubt any of you chose that.
Another answer could be that my teacher had good classroom management skills or had a major in a certain area. I doubt many of you described your most effective teacher in those ways.
Instead, I suspect that your description was more along the lines of a teacher who cared, make learning enjoyable, or pushed you to succeed.

26. The Teacher as a Person Caring Fairness & Respect Attitude
Reflective Practice
Factors that are included for the teacher as a person--those personal dimensions--include elements such as caring, fairness and respect, positive attitude, and reflective practice--all of which have a solid empirical research base supporting why they make a difference in teacher effectiveness.

27. Qualities of Effective Teachers
The Person
Background
Prerequisites
Classroom Management & Instruction
Organizing for Instruction
Implementing Instruction
Job Responsibilities and Practices
Effective Teachers
Monitoring Student Progress & Potential
There are other qualities of effective teachers and we see these qualities demonstrated in how teachers manage their classes, plan for instruction, implement instruction, and how they monitor student progress and use this information to inform their teaching. These areas of job responsibilities and practices are where we focus when we evaluate teachers. It is these process areas where we will next turn when we look at the teacher evaluation system.
Stronge, Qualities of Effective Teachers, ASCD (2007)
Diagram used with the Permission of Linda Hutchinson, Doctoral Student, The College of William and Mary

28. The Bottom Line
“… nothing, absolutely nothing has happened in education until it has happened to a student”
Overall, this quote really sums up the importance of teaching and having high-quality teachers in the classroom. Nothing happens in education until it happens to a child. We have to improve the quality of education for our children.
Joe Carroll (1994)

29. Questions?
Now let’s take a look at how teacher performance will be rated.