With three years of test scores and classroom observations from 3,000 public school teachers, including 450 here, researchers with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation say it is possible to measure a teacher's effectiveness.
Tuesday, in the third and final report on the Measures of Effective Teaching, Gates researchers showed teachers who score high on multiple-measure evaluations can be counted on to consistently improve student scores, regardless of the chronic conditions they may face outside of school.
The Gates research measured teacher effectiveness one year and then randomly assigned students to classrooms the next, eliminating the possibility that a single teacher would get either all high- or low-performing students.
The most effective teachers raised the student learning curve, no matter who was in their classroom.
"The random assignment is absolutely seminal," said Steve Cantrell, Gates' senior program officer. "Great teachers take their kids wherever they are at and get them to learn more. The whole point of the random assignment was to separate the characteristics of the students from the characteristics of the teachers."
Gates research also shows the best predictor of a teacher's long-term ability comes when test scores count one-third to one-half of teachers' annual evaluation, a critical experiment with tying teacher performance to pay and promotions.
In contrast, master's degrees and years of experience, still major factors in how teachers are paid, predict about a third as well as a composite score, Cantrell said.
Gates also says classroom observations are more reliable if they are done by two people and suggests it best if one observer is an outsider.
In Memphis and across the state, test scores count for 35 percent of teachers' scores. Most districts add another 15 percent of data, such as graduation rates, which means that a full half of a teacher's job review is based on student achievement.
MCS received $90 million over seven years from Gates in 2009 to improve its teaching force, including using better recruitment methods and setting up ways to assess teacher performance.
It got its first batch of data last year, including that half its teaching force scored in the two lowest tiers of the five-point state ranking system.
"After two years of rigorous research and development, our work, which in many instances is validated by these findings, is emerging as a proof point for other districts to follow," said Memphis City Schools Supt. Kriner Cash.
"In other words, we are showing that great teachers are not just born, but they can be made. The nature vs. nurture argument for teachers is a false dichotomy."
Teachers here and around the nation are critical of the new measures, saying test scores are an artificial measure of effectiveness and alleging that principals cannot hide their bias in their evaluations.
Vicki Philips, head of Gates' U.S. investment in education, said teachers have a right to be wary and have been "rightfully critical of an evaluation system that either divides them into groups or doesn't give them what they need to improve."
She says they become less wary when they are confident the data is accurate and when they see feedback leads to improvement.
Keith Williams, head of the MCS teachers union is skeptical. "The biggest fallacy is that we do not all use the same formula for added value, and it is weighed heavily."
In Tennessee, teachers are judged on how much they move the needle in predicted student scores (TVASS) on state tests. But in Florida, for example, teachers are measured on the difference between pre- and post tests in the same year.
"I don't know how reliable the data is when you have different measures," Williams said. "I have the least amount of confidence in TVASS of anyone in the state."
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