The New York Times (12/11, Dillon) reports that that "views of public school students about their teachers" are very "useful, according to preliminary results released on Friday from a $45 million research project that is intended to find new ways of distinguishing good teachers from bad. Teachers whose students described them as skillful at maintaining classroom order, at focusing their instruction and at helping their charges learn from their mistakes are often the same teachers whose students learn the most in the course of a year, as measured by gains on standardized test scores, according to a progress report on the research." According to the Times, "The research is part of the $335 million Gates Foundation effort to overhaul the personnel systems in those districts."
The St. Petersburg (FL) Times (12/11, Marshall) adds that the Gates Foundation-funded student involved videotaping "teachers in seven urban school districts across the country, including Hillsborough County [FL], to find out what makes them effective. Even before that videotaping has been completed or analyzed, the study's use of surveys suggests that students can be useful reporters on what's going on in their classrooms." The Times added, "The study is also being conducted in Memphis, Dallas, Charlotte, N.C., Denver, New York, and Pittsburgh."
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