The implementation and potential effects of teacher evaluation under local control

ABSTRACT

Under the Every Student Succeeds Act, states and local school districts have more flexibility to design and implement teacher evaluation systems; however, very few studies have empirically examined the issue of localization of teacher evaluation policies. This study draws on longitudinal, mixed-methods evidence from school districts in a state to examine the implementation and potential effects of teacher evaluation policy on student achievement. We found that the state’s new teacher evaluation policy appeared to have null effects on student reading and mathematics achievement. Our interview data suggested that challenges in implementing the policy at each district can explain such findings.

KEYWORDS:

• Teacher evaluation policy
• policy implementation
• local control

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 We keep the actual state name confidential.

2 District A, where total enrollment was lower than 2,500, was initially recruited for the pilot process but was unable to complete it. Thus, we invited them for the main study.

3 In three districts, two administrators, both the human resources director and superintendent, completed the survey, and their responses were not identical. In this case, we used the response from the person who had worked at the district for a longer period. We assume that both are familiar with the policy implementation in the district, but the administrator who worked at the same district longer might have the historical knowledge about how the policy was implemented.

4 In order to keep confidentiality, we decided not to provide information on the state’s overall student population.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Michigan State University Dissertation Completion Fellowship.

Notes on contributors

Jihyun Kim

Jihyun Kim is an assistant professor in the Educational Leadership program at Lehigh University. Jihyun Kim received her PhD degree in educational policy from Michigan State University. Before joining the PhD program, she worked as a teacher in an elementary school in Korea. Her research interest includes teaching quality, teacher evaluation, policy evaluation, policy implementation, and principals’ leadership. She has presented her work nationally and internationally and published in the American Educational Research Journal, Teachers College Record, American Journal of Education, and Teaching and Teacher Education.

Min Sun

Min Sun is an associate professor in Education Policy. She specializes in economics of education, educator labor markets and effectiveness, school accountability and improvement, and school finance policies. Besides utilizing conventional large-scale administrative data on schools, teachers, and students, Dr. Sun uses “big data” analytics (such as machine learning strategies, social network analysis) to analyze novel data (e.g., texts, social relationships, and team professional relationships) in educational policy research. Her work has been published in premier research journals in educational policy, economics, and public policy, and has been funded by IES, NSF, and the Spencer Foundation, among others.