Measuring teaching effectiveness in secondary schools: Multitrait–multimethod analyses of student–teacher agreement across 15 teaching effectiveness factors and student growth.

Our study (17,049 high school students, 1,013 classes, 549 teachers) validates two parallel multidimensional instruments—the Student Evaluation of Educational Quality–Secondary (SEEQ-S) and the Teacher Evaluation of Educational Quality–Secondary (TEEQ-S)—to examine convergence and divergence in student and teacher perceptions of effective secondary-school teaching. Grounded in multidimensional models of teaching quality and self-determination theory, the study evaluates 15 theoretically derived dimensions that capture autonomy-supportive, competence-enhancing, and relational facets of instruction. Using these large-scale data, a coordinated analytic sequence provided cumulative evidence of construct, convergent, discriminant, and criterion validity. Bayesian structural equation modeling confirmed the factorial structure and measurement invariance. Multitrait–multimethod analyses based on latent correlations demonstrated theoretically expected convergence and discrimination across student- and teacher-reported dimensions, whereas canonical correlation analysis assessed multivariate student–teacher agreement. Bayesian multitrait–multimethod modeling separated trait variance (teaching dimensions) from rater-specific variance (student vs. teacher reports), and latent regression analyses related SEEQ-S and TEEQ-S dimensions to student growth as perceived by students and teachers. Results showed clear multidimensional differentiation, systematic areas of agreement and divergence between students and teachers, and theoretically coherent associations with growth outcomes. By integrating self-determination theory’s motivational principles with rigorous multitrait–multimethod validation, the study advances a unified theoretical and methodological framework for evaluating teaching quality. Designed for formative feedback and professional learning rather than summative evaluation, the SEEQ-S and TEEQ-S provide psychometrically robust, developmentally appropriate tools that transform multidimensional evidence of teaching effectiveness into actionable feedback to guide reflective practice, targeted professional growth, and practical application in authentic school settings.