Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

Panel: Evidence on Personnel Evaluations in K-12 Schools

(Education)

State and local education agencies across the United States are working to develop rigorous personnel evaluation systems that are designed to provide better and more-differentiated information about teacher and principal performance. The improved information from these systems can be used to influence retention and promotion decisions and to guide educators’ formal and informal professional development activities, among other things. But while numerous studies show that the use of improved performance metrics to guide decision-making in public education has the potential to significantly raise achievement and promote better later-life outcomes for students, in practice there are many concerns with implementation. For instance, there are well-documented challenges associated with measuring educator performance accurately. Moreover, using evaluation information in a high-stakes system may come with unintended consequences; e.g., adverse effects on educator morale (and perhaps effort) and a lower general appeal of the teaching profession (which could affect recruitment). Ultimately, we have much to learn about how emerging educator evaluation systems affect worker performance and student outcomes in the field. The four papers to be presented in this session will examine the effects of new, more rigorous educator evaluation systems along a variety of dimensions and across multiple locales. In particular, papers in the panel will consider the effects of new systems on selective attrition and teacher improvement, and correspondingly, student achievement. The quality of the performance measures in these systems for teachers and principals will also receive significant attention. Collectively, the research presented in this session will provide a glimpse into what we’ve learned thus far about the on-the-ground effects of new personnel evaluation systems in K-12 schools.