Center for Education Policy Analysis - Teaching and Leadership Effectiveness

Is Effective Teacher Evaluation Sustainable? Evidence from DCPS

Hiep Ho — Mon, 25 Nov 2019 19:28:59 +0000

Author/s:

Jessalynn James

James Wyckoff

Year of Publication:

2019

Ten years ago, many policymakers viewed the reform of teacher evaluation as a highly promising mechanism to improve teacher effectiveness and student achievement. Recently, that enthusiasm has dimmed as the available evidence suggests the subsequent reforms had a mixed record of implementation and efficacy. Even in districts where there was evidence of efficacy, the early promise of teacher evaluation may not sustain as these systems mature and change. This study examines the evolving design of IMPACT, the teacher evaluation system in the District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS). We describe the recent changes to IMPACT which include higher performance standards for lower-performing teachers and a reduced emphasis on value-added test scores. Descriptive evidence on the dynamics of teacher retention and performance under this redesigned system indicate that lower-performing teachers are particularly likely to either leave or improve. Corresponding causal evidence similarly indicates that imminent dismissal threats for persistently low-performing teachers increased both teacher attrition and the performance of returning teachers. These findings suggest teacher evaluation can provide a sustained mechanism for improving the quality of teaching.

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Primary Research Area:

Federal and State Education Policy

Topic Areas:

Accountability, Education Governance, Teacher Quality

The Causal Effects of Cultural Relevance: Evidence from an Ethnic Studies Curriculum

Hiep Ho — Mon, 11 Jan 2016 06:42:00 +0000

Author/s:

Thomas Dee

Emily Penner

Year of Publication:

2017

Publication:

American Educational Research Journal

Volume/Issue:

54(1)

Pages:

127-166

An extensive theoretical and qualitative literature stresses the promise of instructional practices and content aligned with the cultural experiences of minority students. Ethnic studies courses provide a growing but controversial example of such “culturally relevant pedagogy.” However, the empirical evidence on the effectiveness of these courses is limited. In this study, we estimate the causal effects of an ethnic studies curriculum piloted in several San Francisco high schools. We rely on a “fuzzy” regression discontinuity design based on the fact that several schools assigned students with eighth-grade GPAs below a threshold to take the course in ninth grade. Our results indicate that assignment to this course increased ninth-grade student attendance by 21 percentage points, GPA by 1.4 grade points, and credits earned by 23. These surprisingly large effects are consistent with the hypothesis that the course reduced dropout rates and suggest that culturally relevant teaching, when implemented in a supportive, high-fidelity context, can provide effective support to at-risk students.

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Primary Research Area:

Poverty and Inequality

Topic Areas:

Curriculum and Instruction, Educational Equity, Societal Context, Student Success

Education Level:

K-12

Incentives, Selection, and Teacher Performance: Evidence from IMPACT

Hiep Ho — Fri, 11 Oct 2013 20:41:49 +0000

Author/s:

Thomas Dee

James Wyckoff

Year of Publication:

2015

Publication:

Journal of Policy Analysis and Management

Volume/Issue:

34(2)

Pages:

267–297

URL:

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/pam.21818/abstract

Teachers in the United States are compensated largely on the basis of fixed schedules that reward experience and credentials. However, there is a growing interest in whether performance-based incentives based on rigorous teacher evaluations can improve teacher retention and performance. The evidence available to date has been mixed at best. This study presents novel evidence on this topic based on IMPACT, the controversial teacher-evaluation system introduced in the District of Columbia Public Schools by then-Chancellor Michelle Rhee. IMPACT implemented uniquely high-powered incentives linked to multiple measures of teacher performance (i.e., several structured observational measures as well as test performance). We present regression-discontinuity (RD) estimates that compare the retention and performance outcomes among low-performing teachers whose ratings placed them near the threshold that implied a strong dismissal threat. We also compare outcomes among high-performing teachers whose rating placed them near a threshold that implied an unusually large financial incentive. Our RD results indicate that dismissal threats increased the voluntary attrition of low-performing teachers by 11 percentage points (i.e., more than 50 percent) and improved the performance of teachers who remained by 0.27 of a teacher-level standard deviation. We also find evidence that financial incentives further improved the performance of high-performing teachers (effect size = 0.24).

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Primary Research Area:

Federal and State Education Policy

Secondary Research Area:

Teaching and Leadership Effectiveness

Topic Areas:

Accountability, Education Governance, Teacher Quality

Education Level:

K-12

Curbing or Facilitating Inequality? Law, Collective Bargaining, and Teacher Assignment Among Schools in California

Hiep Ho — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 17:12:20 +0000

Author/s:

William Koski

Eileen L. Horng

Year of Publication:

2007

Publication:

Getting Down to Facts

This study focuses on the legal, policy, and contractual structures in California that are designed to place highly qualified teachers in low-income, high-minority schools as well as
those that may constrain efforts to get good teachers into more difficult teaching assignments. Prior studies document that teachers in California schools with high percentages of low income, minority, and low-performing students tend to be less experienced and more likely to lack credentials than teachers in other schools. This study explores whether this teacher qualifications gap among California schools exists despite or because of various legal and policy structures. Specifically, it addresses the following questions:

Do state laws curb or facilitate the teacher-quality gap in California?
Is there a relationship between highly prescriptive transfer rules in bargaining agreements and the average qualifications of a district’s teachers?
Do districts with relatively prescriptive transfer and leave provisions have larger teacher-qualification gaps among schools?
What do district administrators report about the application of these contractual provisions in their districts?

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Primary Research Area:

Federal and State Education Policy

Secondary Research Area:

Teaching and Leadership Effectiveness

Topic Areas:

Education Governance, Teacher Labor Markets, Teacher Quality

Education Level:

K-12

Project/s:

Getting Down to Facts

Different teachers, different peers: The magnitude of student sorting within schools

Hiep Ho — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 23:19:43 +0000

Author/s:

Demetra Kalogrides

Susanna Loeb

Year of Publication:

2013

Publication:

Educational Researcher

Volume/Issue:

42(6)

Pages:

304-316

In this study we use administrative data from three large urban school districts to describe student sorting within schools. Our data allow us to link students to each of their teachers and to identify students’ classmates. We find differences in the average achievement levels, the racial composition, and the socioeconomic composition of classrooms within schools. This sorting occurs even in self-contained elementary school classrooms and is much larger than would be expected if students were assigned to classrooms randomly. Much, but not all, of the racial and socioeconomic sorting we document is accounted for by differences in achievement, particularly at the high school level. Classrooms with the largest composition of low-achieving, minority and poor students are also more likely to have novice teachers. The process of sorting students by their achievement level has the consequence of exposing minority and poor students to lower quality teachers and less-resourced classmates.

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Primary Research Area:

Poverty and Inequality

Secondary Research Area:

Teaching and Leadership Effectiveness

Topic Areas:

Educational Equity, Student Success, Teacher Labor Markets, Teacher Quality

Education Level:

K-12

Project/s:

School Leadership Research

Dollars and sense

Hiep Ho — Thu, 12 Jul 2012 16:08:50 +0000

Author/s:

Thomas Dee

Benjamin J. Keys

Year of Publication:

2005

Publication:

Education Next

Volume/Issue:

5(1)

Pages:

60-67

Though the dramatic effects that teachers have on student achievement are indisputable, the exact ingredients of effective teaching are anything but settled. Questions about how to value experience, education, certiﬁcation, and pedagogical skills—the big four of teacher inputs—have created one of the most highly contentious ﬁelds of inquiry in education, particularly since they have clear implications for the design of teacher compensation systems.

In 2000,public elementary and secondary schools spent roughly $180 billion on teachers’ salaries and beneﬁts, about half of their total expenditures; most of it was distributed according to ﬁxed salary schedules that considered only a teacher’s education and years of experience. This system has its origins in the ﬁrst half of the 20th century and was partly a response to the racial and gender discrimination that existed under more discretionary systems at that time. However, over the past 20 years more educators have wondered whether such pay packages can attract, motivate, and retain high-quality teachers in a highly competitive professional world (see Forum, page 8). In response to such concerns, there was a ﬂurry of merit pay activity in the early 1980s. Twenty-nine states had initiated some sort of merit pay program for teachers by 1986. Since then, however, almost all of them have been diluted or discontinued. A 1997 study by economists Dale Ballou and Michael Podgursky reported that 12 percent of school districts were using merit pay in some way, but the amount of incentive in these districts averaged only two percent of base pay.

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Primary Research Area:

Federal and State Education Policy

Secondary Research Area:

Teaching and Leadership Effectiveness

Topic Areas:

Finance, Teacher Labor Markets, Teacher Quality

Education Level:

K-12

Examining teacher turnover: The role of school leadership

Hiep Ho — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 18:03:27 +0000

Author/s:

Rekha Balu

Tara Beteille

Susanna Loeb

Year of Publication:

2010

Publication:

Politique Americaine

Volume/Issue:

Issue 15

Pages:

55-79

From a nationwide perspective, the number of teachers leaving schools in the United States – frequently referred to as teacher turnover – is not very large. Between 2003-2004 and 2004-2005, for instance, 83.5% of teachers stayed in the same school, while only 8.1% transferred between schools and 8.4% left teaching (Marvel et al.,2007). However , averages rates hide the fact that some schools lose teachers frequently, particularly schools serving black and low-achieving students (Hanushek et al., 2004; Boyd et al., 2007). High rates of teacher turnover can destabilize the learning environment in schools, disrupting instructional continuity in classrooms and jeopardizing the educational experience of students, many of whom are already at a disadvantage (Shields et al., 1999; Loeb et al.,2005). Administrators may find it difficult to implement policies or make changes if the teaching force in a school is in constant flux.

Primary Research Area:

Poverty and Inequality

Secondary Research Area:

Teaching and Leadership Effectiveness

Topic Areas:

Leadership Quality, Teacher Labor Markets, Teacher Quality

Education Level:

K-12