The Measures of Effective Teaching (MET) Project launched by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, examines value-added test score gains, knowledge tests, and observational protocols, among other measures. It also uses Ferguson’s Tripod survey to measure student perception.
Reports from the met Project show that student responses are "valid and reliable predictors of learning in mathematics and English language arts," Ferguson writes.
One report compared learning gains with students’ evaluation of teachers, analyzing the data in various ways — for example, correlating survey responses with learning gains in other sections taught by the teacher in the same year or in previous years. "In each analysis, students of math teachers with Tripod survey rankings in the top quarter learned the equivalent of four to five more months per year, on average, than students of teachers with survey rankings in the bottom quarter," Ferguson explains. Gains in language arts were about half as large.
The reports also showed that the highest-achieving classrooms are "respectful and orderly environments, with students who stay busy and learn to correct their mistakes from a teacher who explains difficult things clearly."
"No one survey instrument or observational protocol should have high stakes for teachers if used alone or for only a single deployment," Ferguson concludes. "But students know good instruction when they experience it as well as when they do not.