Indicator: Student perceptions of teaching

Definition

Students report having a supportive, engaging teacher who sets clear, fair, and high expectations, and helps them learn.

Recommended Metric(s)

K–12: Students’ perceptions of their teacher’s effectiveness, as measured by surveys

Example Instruments

Not finding an instrument that suits your needs? Visit EdInstruments.org for more measurement tools.

Postsecondary: Students’ perceptions of whether college instructors implement effective teaching practices, as measured by surveys

Example Instruments

Not finding an instrument that suits your needs? Visit EdInstruments.org for more measurement tools.

Type(s) of Data Needed

Classroom observations; surveys

Why it matters

Measures of teaching effectiveness do not always incorporate student voice, even though students spend more time with their instructors than any other observer. Although there are important drawbacks to relying only on student perceptions to measure teaching effectiveness (for example, multiple studies have shown that student evaluations of their college instructors can be biased based on the gender, race, and ethnicity of the instructor),1, 2 research suggests that student perception data from well-constructed and administered surveys can differentiate between effective and ineffective teachers.3 For instance, a study in seven urban school districts found that students taught by a teacher in the top 25th percentile, according to student responses on the Tripod Student Survey, learned the equivalent of almost five additional months of instruction in math in a year than students taught by a teacher who ranked in the bottom 25th percentile.4 Many K–12 school climate surveys also include questions about students’ perceptions of teachers as an important dimension of school climate.5 In California, for example, 40 percent of Latino and Indigenous students reported high expectations from adults at school, compared to almost half of Asian, Black, and White students.6

What to know about measurement

Measuring students’ perceptions of their instructors requires institutions to administer annual student-level survey s, which is increasingly common. As of 2020, 14 states reported using or encouraging the use of student surveys to evaluate K–12 teachers.7 In addition, 16 states were administering or piloting school climate or engagement student surveys.8 At the postsecondary level, student evaluations of college instructors are often used by administrators as a measure of teaching effectiveness (though as noted above, these data can be biased).9 As an alternative to these course evaluations of individual instructors, surveys such as the National Survey of Student Engagement ask questions about students’ overall experiences with instructors and whether instructors have exhibited effective teaching practices during the course of the school year.10

It is important to select a survey instrument with proven validity and reliability—that is, one that predicts student outcomes and demonstrates relative consistency. In addition, as with all surveys, data users must pay attention to response rates and gauge how well respondents represent the students taught by the instructor. We have identified and suggested a sampling of tools with an evidence base, though other instruments may also be appropriate to measure this indicator. Because survey tools (and response rates) are likely to vary across states and localities, users should take care in comparing perceptions data across contexts. 

We caution against using student perceptions data as a singular measure of teaching effectiveness. (Our recommendations also include measures based on classroom observation data and student outcome data—see classroom observations of instructional practice and teachers’ contributions to student learning growth.) Experts tend to agree that student ratings should not be the sole or primary method of evaluating teachers, but rather one component of a comprehensive teacher evaluation system.11, 12, 13

Source frameworks

This indicator appeared in eight source frameworks reviewed for this report. Our proposed definition aligns with the P-16 framework.

References