The Compositional Effect of Rigorous Teacher Evaluation on Workforce Quality

60 Pages Posted: 7 Nov 2016 Last revised: 24 Apr 2023

See all articles by Julie Berry Cullen

Julie Berry Cullen

University of California, San Diego (UCSD) - Department of Economics; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

Cory Koedel

University of Missouri - Economics

Eric Parsons

University of Missouri at Columbia - Department of Economics

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Date Written: November 2016

Abstract

Improving public sector workforce quality is challenging in sectors such as education where worker productivity is difficult to assess and manager incentives are muted by political and bureaucratic constraints. In this paper, we study how providing improved information to principals about teacher effectiveness and encouraging them to use the information in personnel decisions affects the composition of teacher turnovers. Our setting is the Houston Independent School District, which recently implemented a rigorous teacher evaluation system. Prior to the new system, teacher effectiveness was negatively correlated with district exit and we show that the policy significantly strengthened this relationship, primarily by increasing the relative likelihood of exit for teachers in the bottom quintile of the quality distribution. Low-performing teachers working in low-achieving schools were especially likely to leave. However, despite the success, the implied change to the quality of the workforce overall is too small to have a detectable impact on student achievement.

Suggested Citation

Berry Cullen, Julianne (Julie) and Koedel, Cory and Parsons, Eric, The Compositional Effect of Rigorous Teacher Evaluation on Workforce Quality (November 2016). NBER Working Paper No. w22805, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2865541

Julianne (Julie) Berry Cullen (Contact Author)

University of California, San Diego (UCSD) - Department of Economics ( email )

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National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

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Cory Koedel

University of Missouri - Economics ( email )

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Columbia, MO 65211
United States

Eric Parsons

University of Missouri at Columbia - Department of Economics ( email )

118 Professional Building
Columbia, MO 65211
United States

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