Research: Using E-Mails To Predict Teacher Effectiveness

I predict you won't like this next item:  I've been joking about predictive value-added ratings for a while now but it turns out I'm already behind the times. This story from the Harvard Education Letter from last spring describes efforts to do just that by at least one charter network in Texas.  What's being used in the place of standardized testing data are things like phone interviews and email responses. It sounds like an online version of the interviews and simulations that many organizations use to try and weed out candidates.  There are a variety of online screening tools out there being used for mass screenings, also, but this sounds much more detailed and in depth.  Yes, of course, the effort is being funded in part by the Gates Foundation.

Comments

[CarolineSF]

There's a point where things get so obviously wild-eyed that it works in critics' favor. This might be one of them.

The rent-a-protester fiasco in Chicago is a classic, for example. And the Parent Trigger may have jumped the shark too. In California, the Parent Trigger has been feted with gushing editorials from every editorial board in the state. But more recently, in Florida, at least two major, respected newspapers have expressed strong skepticism. (Is the truth becoming clear or is the Florida press just smarter and less gullible?)

Anyway, something will be the jumping-the-shark point for the corporate reform nostrums, and maybe this will help it along.

[S.Fukuda]

This is a very interesting method that is far better than just interviewing a candidate. Some people are just good at interviews, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that he or she is a good teacher. Perhaps he or she has been let go more than once giving him or her lots of experiences with interviews!

In the teacher’s exam in Japan, not only do they have a huge written test that takes more than four hours to complete, but they also have group discussions, essays, practice lessons, and practice situations they have to do in front of interviewers. It is a very rigorous process that lasts more than a month.

Also, in countries like Finland, there is a probation year, where a candidate is put under the wing of an experience teacher for a year to see if he or she actually has the potential.

Or what if all subjects like Teaching English as a second language had a test such as the Cambridge’s Teaching Knowledge Test?