The stability of student ratings of teacher instructional practice: examining the one-year stability of the 7Cs composite

Abstract

ABSTRACTIn this study, we examine the year-to-year teacher-level stability of the Tripod 7Cs composite, a widely used measure of student perceptions of teaching effectiveness. We perform ordinary least squares regression on data collected in the classrooms of 12,707 teachers across 874 schools. Results demonstrate that the 7Cs composite exhibits year-to-year stability coefficients of .46, .48, and .56, at the Kindergarten to 2nd, 3rd to 5th, and 6th to 12th grade levels, respectively. Controlling for changes in student and classroom characteristics across years does not substantively affect stability coefficients at any grade level. These findings demonstrate that the 7Cs composite is as stable or more stable than value-added and observational measures of teaching effectiveness, which offers additional evidence supporting its use in measuring instructional quality and tracking it over time.