The Role of Teacher TeacherInsight™ Scores and Teacher Demographic Characteristics in the Identification of Effective Teachers: Using Student Performance as a Validation Tool

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine if effective teachers could beidentified based on the association of teachers’ Gallup TeacherInsight™ scores andteachers’ demographics with Teacher Group Average (TGA) gain in math and reading asmeasured by the Northwest Evaluation Association Measures of Academic Progress(NWEA MAP) Assessment. The targeted population consisted of 76 newly hiredteachers who took the Gallup TeacherInsight assessment during the 2011-2012 schoolyears. The sample included math and reading scores, as measured from the NWEA MAPAssessment, of 9,154 students of the 76 teachers.Correlation coefficient tests, linear regression analysis, independent-samples ttests, and a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) were conducted for three researchquestions. Findings from the study revealed that there was no statistically significantassociation between teachers’ TeacherInsight scores and TGA gain in math and readingas measured on the NWEA Map Assessment for Grades K-8. Analysis of thedemographic data indicated no statistically significant association between gender, degreeearned, and years of experience with TGA gain in math and reading. However, there wasa significant statistical association between teacher building level and TGA gain in mathand reading.Findings from the literature review were mixed on the importance of using acommercial interview selection instrument to hire better teachers. Results from thisstudy indicated that the teacher TeacherInsight scores should not be used as a finaldeterminer in selecting highly effective teachers. Demographics such as gender, degreeearned, building level, and years of experience showed limited associations with TGA gain in math and reading as measured on the NWEA MAP and should not be used topredict TGA gain. The most significant finding of the data analysis was that elementaryschool teachers’ students TGA gain was greater than middle school teachers’ studentsTGA gain in both reading and math. Further research should be done on commercialscreening instruments and methods to aid in the hiring of highly effective teachers thatwill ultimately impact student performance.