Have We Identified Effective Teachers? Validating Measures of Effective Teaching Using Random Assignment

The connection between teachers and students is at the heart of learning. Our work focuses on ensuring that all teachers have the goals, skills and tools to form and strengthen that powerful bond with their students. The first step in doing that is asking teachers what works and what they need to strengthen the teacher-student bond—and then trusting and listening to what they tell us.

In 2009, through the Intensive Partnerships for Effective Teaching initiative, we invested in three school districts: Hillsborough County Public Schools, Florida; Memphis City Schools, Tennessee; and Pittsburgh Public Schools, Pennsylvania, and a group of charter management organizations (CMOs).

From 2007 to 2014, Cambridge Education implemented Tripod surveys through its partnership with Dr. Ronald F. Ferguson of Harvard University. Dr. Ferguson and Rob Ramsdell were the professional leads for the survey portion of the MET project and Cambridge Education managed all data collection related to the Tripod survey.