Respecting complexity in measures of teaching: Keeping students and schools in focus

Many studies have found moderate relationships between measures of teaching practice and student achievement gains, but have focused on teacher quality as a uniform construct. This paper draws on data from 179 middle school language arts teachers to explore factors that might mediate the relationships between measures of teaching and student achievement, using the Protocol for Language Arts Teaching Observation (PLATO) and value-added measures. We find various factors- including student demographics and school characteristics-may mediate the relationship between teaching variables and student outcomes. Discussion focuses on theoretical issues in research on teacher quality and empirical lessons learned about research design and methods.