The stability of student ratings of teacher instructional practice: examining the one-year stability of the 7Cs composite

ABSTRACT

In this study, we examine the year-to-year teacher-level stability of the Tripod 7Cs composite, a widely used measure of student perceptions of teaching effectiveness. We perform ordinary least squares regression on data collected in the classrooms of 12,707 teachers across 874 schools. Results demonstrate that the 7Cs composite exhibits year-to-year stability coefficients of .46, .48, and .56, at the Kindergarten to 2nd, 3rd to 5th, and 6th to 12th grade levels, respectively. Controlling for changes in student and classroom characteristics across years does not substantively affect stability coefficients at any grade level. These findings demonstrate that the 7Cs composite is as stable or more stable than value-added and observational measures of teaching effectiveness, which offers additional evidence supporting its use in measuring instructional quality and tracking it over time.

KEYWORDS:

• Student surveys
• teacher quality
• reliability

Disclosure statement

Currently, I am an employee of Tripod Education Partners, as is Sarah F. Phillips. Ronald F. Ferguson is the co-founder of the organization and a professor at Harvard University. Our relationship with Tripod has not compromised our objectivity or the findings of this research in any way.

Notes on contributors

Jacob Francis Scollan Rowley is a research scientist at Tripod Education Partners. Jacob’s passion for educational issues was first sparked by a community psychology research project conducted during his senior year of college. The project entailed examining the efficacy of newly implemented school policies. Following graduation, he served as a member of Project POWER, an Asheville, NC-based AmeriCorps program. As a Project POWER member, he worked as a second-grade teacher’s assistant and as co-site Leader of a K–5 after-school program. He holds an EdM in Human Development and Psychology from Harvard University, as well as a BA in Psychology from the University of North Carolina, Asheville.

Sarah Fierberg Phillips is Vice President of Research at Tripod Education Partners. Sarah’s research examines positive youth development in school and out-of-school contexts with an emphasis on racial/ethnic differences and disparities. Her scholarship is informed by more than a decade of experience as a teacher, community organizer, and non-profit leader. Highlights include helping to start one of Oakland's first community schools, winning weekend train service for several low-income communities on Chicago’s West Side, and co-leading the transformation of City Year Rhode Island’s Program and Service Department. Sarah holds a PhD in Social Policy from Brandeis University, a MSW in Community Organization and Communities and Social Systems from the University of Michigan, and a BA in History with Honors from Brown University.

Ronald Franklin Ferguson is co-founder of Tripod Education Partners. Ron is an MIT-trained economist who has taught at Harvard University since 1983. His teaching and publications cover a variety of issues in education and economic development. In addition to teaching and writing, he consults actively with school departments and agencies at all levels of government. He is the creator of the Tripod Project for School Improvement, including widely used student and teacher surveys. He is also a co-founder of Tripod Education, Inc., the faculty co-chair and director of the Achievement Gap Initiative at Harvard University, and was recently faculty co-chair of the Pathways to Prosperity Initiative on adolescent-to-adult transitions at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education. Most of Ferguson’s research since the mid-1990s has focused on racial achievement gaps, appearing in publications of the National Research Council, the Brookings Institution, and the US Department of Education, in addition to various books and journals. His most recent book is Toward Excellence with Equity: An Emerging Vision for Closing the Achievement Gap, published by Harvard Education Press. He earned an undergraduate degree from Cornell University and a PhD from MIT, both in economics.

ORCID

Jacob Francis Scollan Rowley http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8681-6179

Sarah Fierberg Phillips http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1037-202X