Teacher performance study

Gates Study Offers Teacher-Effectiveness Clues
Preliminary findings show that value-added histories and student perceptions of teachers strongly predict teacher performance. “Value added” gauges based on growth in student test scores and students’ perceptions of their teachers both hold promise as components of a system for identifying and promoting teacher effectiveness, according to preliminary findings from the first year of a major study. The study found that student improvement on standardized tests reflected gains in learning and critical-thinking skills, not memorization, as some critics have suggested. Furthermore, the value-added predictions were corroborated by the results of student surveys, which often identified the same teachers as the most effective.
Gates Foundation. (2010). Measures of effective teaching. Seattle: Gates Foundation.
http://www.gatesfoundation.org/united-states/Pages/measures-of-effective-teaching-fact-sheet.aspx