What Explains the Race Gap in Teacher Performance Ratings? Evidence From Chicago Public Schools

Racial gaps in teacher performance ratings have emerged nationwide across newly implemented educator evaluation systems. Using Chicago Public Schools data, we quantify the magnitude of the race gap in teachers’ classroom observation scores, examine its determinants, and describe the potential implications for teacher diversity. Between-school differences explain most of the race gap and within-school classroom-level differences—poverty, incoming achievement, and prior-year misconduct of a teacher’s students—explain the remainder of the race gap. Teachers’ value-added scores explain none of the race gap. Leveraging within-teacher variation in the teacher–evaluator race match, we find that racial mismatch does not influence observation scores. Adjusting observation scores for classroom and school context will generate more equitable ratings of teacher performance and mitigate potential adverse consequences for teacher diversity.

The role of ego threat in professional growth: Fulfilling the ethical intentions of the SEED Model

Schools and education in general have made an implicit and, we would assert, explicit promise to society to educate all the children in their care. Unfortunately, there are achievement gaps that illustrate how schools have broken this promise. Teacher evaluation and other accountability measures have been heralded as the answer to this problem. Educator ego threat impedes the implementation of goal-driven teacher evaluation models and, thus, ethical questions arise. To realize the noble goals of educator evaluation, leaders must attend to ethical concerns and to the human aspects of ego threat.

The role of ego threat in professional growth: Fulfilling the ethical intentions of the SEED Model

Schools and education in general have made an implicit and, we would assert, explicit promise to society to educate all the children in their care. Unfortunately, there are achievement gaps that illustrate how schools have broken this promise. Teacher evaluation and other accountability measures have been heralded as the answer to this problem. Educator ego threat impedes the implementation of goal-driven teacher evaluation models and, thus, ethical questions arise. To realize the noble goals of educator evaluation, leaders must attend to ethical concerns and to the human aspects of ego threat.