Teacher Demographics and Evaluation: A Descriptive Study in a Large Urban District. REL 2017-189

Nationwide, the prevalence of new educator evaluation systems has increased since the inception of federal initiatives such as the Race to the Top grant competition. Yet limited empirical research examines teacher demographic characteristics and their relationship to teacher evaluation outcomes, such as teacher evaluation ratings. Previous research has examined teacher characteristics and evaluation outcomes but largely in terms of teachers' credentials, such as certification, or personality characteristics, such as enthusiasm, caring, or intelligence, as perceived by the principal. No recently published studies examine teachers' demographic characteristics as they relate to educator evaluation outcomes. Using data from one urban public school district in the Regional Educational Laboratory Northeast & Islands Region that implemented a new educator evaluation system in 2012/13, this study examines teacher summative performance evaluation ratings--ratings that teachers on a one-year, summative evaluation plan receive annually, which have four categories: exemplary, proficient, needs improvement, and unsatisfactory--disaggregated by teacher characteristics, including race/ethnicity, age, and gender. Some public concern had been expressed in this district--and in others across the country--that racial/ethnic minority teachers may be more likely than other teachers to be identified for possible dismissal based on a lower performance rating. As a result the district wanted to examine more closely any patterns in performance ratings over time by teacher demographic characteristics. As other districts and states roll out new evaluation systems, they may face similar concerns related to the distribution of ratings across teachers with different demographic characteristics. This study addressed two topics: (1) whether the percentage of teachers with a below proficient summative performance rating varies by teacher characteristics; and (2) whether the percentage of teachers who improved their summative performance rating over three years varies by teacher characteristics. Tests of statistical significance were not conducted because the study examined a population of teachers. Differences greater than 5 percentage points were deemed to be substantively meaningful and are highlighted in this report. Key findings based on an analysis of teacher ratings from three years (2012/13-2014/15) include: (1) The characteristics of teachers in each of the three years included a