Can Multifactor Models of Teaching Improve Teacher Effectiveness Measures?

Describing Profiles of Instructional Practice

“…We preferred the four-class solution because it provided sufficient sample size for comparisons among classes. Additionally, previous work has found three continuous factors when analyzing the observational instruments (e.g., Grossman et al, 2014; Kane & Staiger, 2012; Lazarev & Newman, 2014). A three-factor solution corresponds to four latent classes (see Halpin, Dolan, Grasman, & De Boeck, 2011), which provides additional rationale for preferring the four-class solution.…”

“…While this approach may facilitate comparison among teachers, it is not in line with theory and evidence that effective teaching requires the skillful coordination of multiple practices (e.g., Darling-Hammond & Bransford, 2007; Snow, Griffin, & Burns, 2007) and that different teachers may demonstrate different patterns of strengths and weaknesses (e.g., Grossman, Loeb, Cohen, & Wyckoff, 2013). Psychometric research also supports the conclusion that many observational instruments measure multiple dimensions of instructional quality (e.g., Grossman et al 2014; Lazarev & Newman, 2014; Savitsky & McCaffrey, 2014), suggesting that teachers’ practices are not well described in terms of a single construct.…”