Developing Student Feedback Surveys for Educator Evaluation: Combining Stakeholder Engagement and Psychometric Analyses

• In Event: 31.036 - Evaluation of Teaching: Possibilities and Challenges

Abstract

The research described in this paper is Part I of a three-part series to describe the development and validation of student feedback instruments. Beginning in 2014–2015, student feedback will join artifacts of practice and observational feedback as evidence in teacher evaluation. Student surveys were designed to provide diagnostic feedback to teachers in a manner that can inform and improve practice. The item development process relied on extensive stakeholder engagement combined with a Rasch-based construct validity framework to result in instruments that would (1) yield concrete, actionable information about practice aligned to observable Standards and Indicators of Effective Teaching, and (2) differentiate between levels of practice such that an educator could identify where they excelled and where/how they could improve.

Authors

• Shelagh M. Peoples, Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education

• Claire Abbott, Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education

• Kathleen Marie Flanagan, Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education