The Tennessee Educator Acceleration Model and the Teacher Instructional Growth for Effectiveness and Results Model on Measures of Teacher Effectiveness: A Comparative Study

The purpose of this quantitative study was to compare measures of teacher effectiveness between two different Tennessee teacher evaluation models. The two teacher evaluation models compared were the Tennessee Educator Acceleration Model (TEAM) and the Teacher Instructional Growth for Effectiveness and Results Model (TIGER). The measures of teacher effectiveness used were final observation scores and individual value-added growth (TVAAS) scores. The relationship between observation scores and growth scores were also compared for the two different evaluation models. There were four guiding research questions and corresponding null hypotheses. Data were provided from participating school systems. The sample for this study included 230 TIGER teachers from 3 TIGER districts and 2,389 TEAM teachers from 9 TEAM districts. Independent samples t-tests and Pearson correlations were computed to investigate the research questions. All data were analyzed using a 0.05 significance level. Findings from the data indicate that teachers who were evaluated using the TIGER model had statistically higher TVAAS scores and final observation scores when compared with TEAM teachers. Results also indicated a significant positive relationship between observation scores and TVAAS scores for both TEAM and TIGER teachers. Findings indicate a stronger relationship for the TIGER teachers than for the TEAM teachers