The Effects of Teacher Evaluation Policy on Student Achievement and Teacher Turnover: Leveraging Teacher Accountability and Teacher Development

Abstract

Like many policymakers across the globe, Tennessee policymakers have adopted theoretically substantial teacher evaluation reforms since the early 2010s. Although research suggests that the introduction of redesigned systems has not affected teacher or student outcomes, on average, specific accountability- and developmental-oriented policy levers within these systems may. Using 3 years of administrative data from low-stakes settings resembling those in many evaluation systems, the authors apply regression discontinuity and local regression designs to estimate the net policy effects of an accountability-oriented policy and a different developmentally oriented policy on teacher and student outcomes.

Key Findings

1. Assigning teachers more frequent formal observations, a developmentally oriented policy, does not affect teacher turnover or student achievement and may lower the achievement scores of the least effective teachers.
2. Issuing teachers relatively lower composite effectiveness scores does not affect either outcome for most teacher groups but may improve the student achievement scores of the least effective teachers.
3. Findings imply that policymakers might use the assignment of teacher effectiveness scores for student benefit.

Suggested Citation