QUANTITATIVE MODELS FOR ESTIMATING TEACHER AND SCHOOL EFFECTIVENESS11Research reported here was supported by a grant from the Spencer Foundation.

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the models for estimating the teachers' and school's effectiveness. The idea of evaluating teacher and school performance by monitoring student outcomes is hardly new, but the number and variety of applications of this idea seem to be increasing. There is evidence that the consequences of these evaluations are increasingly important for teachers and school officials. In the context of the variety of uses of quantitative assessments of teacher and school functioning, it is intriguing that substantial confusion and disagreement remain, even among statisticians, about how teacher or school effects should be estimated. The variety of uses of student outcome data compels a rigorous examination of alternative methods of estimation. The chapter presents two arguments. The efforts to assess school or teacher effectiveness without specifying the particular features that produce effectiveness will generally yield untrustworthy results. The second argument relates to the method by which student intake, composition, and school context can be taken into account in assessing teacher or school effectiveness.