Every teacher starts the school year with great expectations for an orderly classroom. An experienced educator has probably tried various approaches to maintain order and create a classroom environment where every student feels comfortable contributing. To let the students know how much is really expected of them, teachers should not simply state…

In fall 2009, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation launched the Measures of Effective Teaching (MET) project to develop and test multiple measures of teacher effectiveness. The goal of the MET project is to improve the quality of information about teaching effectiveness available to education professionals within states and districts--information…