Lauren Sartain

Does Teacher Evaluation Improve School Performance? Experimental Evidence from Chicago's Excellence in Teaching Project

Chicago Public Schools initiated the Excellence in Teaching Project, a teacher evaluation program designed to increase student learning by improving classroom instruction through structured principal–teacher dialogue. The pilot began in forty-four elementary schools in 2008–09 (cohort 1) and scaled up to include an additional forty-eight elementary schools in 2009–10 (cohort 2). Leveraging the experimental design of the rollout, cohort 1 schools performed better in reading and math than cohort 2 schools at the end of the first year, though the math effects are not statistically significant. We find the initial improvement for cohort 1 schools remains even after cohort 2 schools adopted the program. Moreover, the pilot differentially impacted schools with different characteristics. Higher-achieving and lower-poverty schools were the primary beneficiaries, suggesting the intervention was most successful in more advantaged schools. These findings are relevant for policy makers and school leaders who are implementing evaluation systems that incorporate classroom observations.

Teachers’ Labor Market Responses to Performance Evaluation Reform: Experimental Evidence from Chicago Public Schools

Traditional teacher evaluation systems have come under scrutiny for not identifying, supporting, and, if necessary, removing low-performing teachers from the classroom. Leveraging the experimental rollout of a pilot evaluation system in Chicago, we find that, while there was no main effect of the pilot on teacher exit, the pilot system increased exit for low-rated and nontenured teachers. Furthermore, teachers who exited were lower performing than those who stayed and those who replaced them. These findings suggest that reformed evaluation systems can induce low-performing teachers to exit schools and may also improve the overall quality of the teacher labor force.

The Educational Benefits of Attending Higher Performing Schools: Evidence From Chicago High Schools:

Policymakers are implementing reforms with the assumption that students do better when attending high-achieving schools. In this article, we use longitudinal data from Chicago Public Schools to test that assumption. We find that the effects of attending a higher performing school depend on the school’s performance level. At elite public schools with admission criteria, there are no academic benefits—test scores are not better, grades are lower—but students report better environments. In contrast, forgoing a very low-performing school for a nonselective school with high test scores and graduation rates improves a range of academic and nonacademic outcomes.