Original Abstract
This project is designed to provide an empirical foundation for the engineering of theoretically based, practical, valid and helpful solutions to the problem of teacher evaluation. We propose an ambitious, multi-disciplinary examination of measures of teacher quality. Our focus will be on teachers of middle school mathematics and English language arts (ELA). The project is a collaboration of ETS, the Rand Corporation, and the University of Michigan to study and evaluate the validity, utility, and interrelationships of a range of measures that assess different constructs of teaching.
Supplemental Work
As given in the original proposal, this project includes two years of data collection. The first year of data collection is nearly complete. The principal investigators have requested supplemental activities for field staff members which will increase the efforts and costs for SRO in the second year of data collection. These activities include:
Training and Calibration: Each of twelve Observer/Coders is participating in two additional weeks of training plus 12 additional hours/month of calibration work during data collection months that were not originally included in the budget (2112 hours) The cost for additional training and calibration is $ 82,459.
Data Collection: Observer/Coders are spending an extra ? hours per observation (1800) that was not budgeted to prepare teacher/student assignment files for on-line analysis (1350 hours). The cost for additional data collection is $ 52,709.
Post Collection: Observer/Coders are spending an extra one hour per video coding session to complete coding without scoring gaps and to include 20% verification (5400 hours). The cost for additional post collection activities is $210,834.
Funding:
Educational Testing Service
Funding Period:
08/01/2010 to 07/31/2011