Effects of Performance Feedback on High School Teachers’ Use of Opportunities to Respond and Positive Feedback: Considering Efficiency in High Need Schools

The transition into high school presents new challenges for adolescents and performance in ninth grade is highly predictive of success throughout the remainder of high school. However, focus on teacher performance has great promise for increasing student engagement in the classroom and raising student achievement. Unfortunately, many of these practices typically are not implemented within classrooms where students are at highest risk for failure. Two studies were implemented to examine the effect of simple performance feedback strategies as a means of increasing teachers’ provision of opportunities for student responses and positive feedback during instruction. Results showed no effect in teacher behavior as a result of performance feedback. A discussion considers the implications of high need schools, efficiency, and the necessary and sufficient strategies for changing teacher behavior