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CMS enters national teaching measurement study

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools is participating in a national study that will measure teacher effectiveness. WFAE's Simone Orendain reports: The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is funding the study that will include five or six districts across the country. Education researchers will analyze fourth through 12th grade teachers. They will video tape four classroom sessions of, take feedback from their students on what teachers do and look at their students' work. CMS will receive $1.4 million dollars for placing 500 teachers in the study. Superintendent Peter Gorman is glad that the Gates Foundation asked CMS to take part. He says the results will have the potential to improve public education in the long run. "It would be wonderful if I could tell you that all 15,000 school districts across the nation have the same standard definition for what an effective teacher is, to how to monitor it, how to evaluate it, how to measure it. That just doesn't exist right now. I hope we can move closer to that at some point in time," he says. District officials say participating will take 15-hours of teachers' time and they will receive $1,500 for taking part. Also each school that participates will receive $1,500 to cover costs associated with the study. Gorman says the information gathered about the teachers who sign-on will not be used for evaluations. It will be kept secure. The project begins in October and will finish at the end of next school year.