The Center for Assessment, Design, Research and Evaluation (CADRE), housed in the School of Education and led by Professor Derek Briggs, contributed two newly-released studies to the Georgia Department of Education's technical evaluation of the Georgia Student Growth Model. The studies were conducted by Professor Briggs and Research and Evaluation Methodology (REM) doctoral students Nathan Dadey and Ruhan Circi Kizil.
In Comparing Student Growth and Teacher Observation to Principal Judgments in the Evaluation of Teacher Effectiveness, Briggs, Dadey, and Kizil share the results of a survey they conducted with 1,013 out of 1394 (a remarkable response rate of 73%) unique principals randomly sampled across the state. They asked principals to provide their judgments on the ability of their teachers to increase student achievement and then compared this to indicators of teacher quality based on student growth and direct observations. Briggs. Dadey, and Kizil found that the mean student growth percentiles of teachers rated as most effective by the principal is about 11 percentile points higher than those teachers rated as least effective. These teachers also tended to have significantly higher scores on their observations of practice. The authors also asked principals why they had rated teachers as most or least effective and found a variety of interesting responses that they summarize and discuss in the report.
In Adjusting Mean Growth Percentiles for Classroom Composition, Briggs, Kizil, and Dadey illustrate and apply an approach that can be used to adjust mean student growth percentiles for differences in classroom-level compositional factors such as %FRL (Free or Reduced Lunch), mean prior achievement, %ELL (English Language Learner) and %SPED (Special Education). They show that although these adjusted mean growth percentiles are highly correlated with unadjusted mean growth percentiles, the small percentage of teachers that switch performance classifications (about 10%) as a result are those that, as one would predict, teach students who tend to be more disadvantaged and lower achieving.
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Related Faculty: Derek Briggs, Nathan Dadey,