Classroom Composition Affects Teacher Performance Ratings

Abstract

Teacher evaluations should reflect teaching performance rather than the characteristics of the students assigned to a teacher. Exploiting naturally occurring year-to-year variation in classroom composition within teachers, this article examines whether teacher performance ratings assigned by evaluators and students are influenced by classroom context. We find that teachers with higher-achieving and less disruptive students, holding constant the teacher and school, receive systematically higher performance ratings. These effects are robust across model specifications, placebo tests, and multiple dimensions of teaching practice. By contrast, classroom demographics show no consistent association with performance ratings. A policy that adjusts evaluator scores for classroom characteristics, analogous to value-added models, increases the relative ranking of Black teachers by 8 percentage points, highlighting equity impacts of considering classroom context.

Keywords

teacher quality subjective performance ratings classroom observations student surveys classroom characteristics teacher characteristics

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Aaronson

Barrow

Sander

(2007). Teachers and student achievement in the Chicago Public High Schools. Journal of Labor Economics, 25(1), 95–135. https://doi.org/10.1086/508733

Aucejo

Coate

Fruehwirth

J. C.

Kelly

Mozenter

(2022). Teacher effectiveness and classroom composition: Understanding match effects in the classroom. The Economic Journal, 132(648), 3047–3064. https://doi.org/10.1093/ej/ueac046

Biasi

Stromme

(2021). Equilibrium in the market for public school teachers: District wage strategies and teacher comparative advantage (NBER working paper 28530). National Bureau of Economic Research.

Borman

G. D.

Kimball

S. M.

(2005). Teacher quality and educational equality: Do teachers with higher standards-based evaluation ratings close student achievement gaps? The Elementary School Journal, 10 6(1), 3–20. https://doi.org/10.1086/496904

Boyd

Grossman

Ing

Lankford

Loeb

Wyckoff

(2011). The influence of school administrators on teacher retention decisions. American Educational Research Journal, 48(2), 303–333. https://doi.org/10.3102/0002831210380788

Bryk

A. S.

Sebring

P. B.

Allensworth

Luppescu

Easton

J. Q.

(2010). Organizing schools for improvement: Lessons from Chicago. University of Chicago Press.

Campbell

S. L.

Ronfeldt

(2018). Observational evaluation of teachers: Measuring more than we bargained for? American Educational Research Journal, 55(6), 1233–1267. https://doi.org/10.3102/0002831218776216

Chaplin

Gill

Thompkins

Miller

(2014). Professional practice, student surveys, and value-added: Multiple measures of teacher effectiveness in the Pittsburgh Public Schools (REL 2014-024). Regional Educational Laboratory Mid-Atlantic.

Cherng

H.-Y. S.

Halpin

P. F.

Rodriguez

L. A.

(2022). Teaching bias? Relations between teaching quality and classroom demographic composition. American Journal of Education, 128(2), 171–201. https://doi.org/10.1086/717676

10.

Chetty

Friedman

J. N.

Rockoff

J. E.

(2014a). Measuring the impacts of teachers I: Evaluating bias in teacher value-added estimates. American Economic Review, 104(9), 2593–2632. https://doi.org/10.1257/aer.104.9.2593

11.

Chetty

Friedman

J. N.

Rockoff

J. E.

(2014b). Measuring the impacts of teachers II: Teacher value-added and student outcomes in adulthood. American Economic Review, 104(9), 2633–2679. https://doi.org/10.1257/aer.104.9.2633

12.

Chicago Public Schools. (2019). REACH students: Teacher performance evaluation.

13.

Clotfelter

C. T.

Ladd

H. F.

Vigdor

J. L.

(2006). Teacher-student matching and the assessment of teacher effectiveness. Journal of Human Resources, 41(4), 778–820. https://doi.org/10.3368/jhr.XLI.4.778

14.

Dee

T. S.

(2004). Teachers, race, and student achievement in a randomized experiment. The Review of Economics and Statistics, 86(1), 195–210. https://doi.org/10.1162/003465304323023750

15.

Dee

T. S.

(2007). Teachers and the gender gaps in student achievement. Journal of Human Resources, 42(3), 528–554. https://doi.org/10.3368/jhr.XLII.3.528

16.

Delgado

(2025). Disparate teacher effects, comparative advantage, and match quality. Economics of Education Review, 106, Article 102648. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.econedurev.2025.102648

17.

District of Columbia Public Schools. (2022). IMPACT annual reference guide: 2022–2023.

18.

Doherty

Jacobs

(2013). Connect the dots: Using evaluations of teacher effectiveness to inform policy and practice. National Council on Teacher Quality.

19.

Egalite

A. J.

Kisida

Winters

M. A.

(2015). Representation in the classroom: The effect of own-race teachers on student achievement. Economics of Education Review, 45, 44–52. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.econedurev.2015.01.007

20.

Gershenson

Hart

Hyman

Lindsay

C. A.

Papageorge

N. W.

(2022). The long-run impacts of same-race teachers. American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, 14(4), 300–342. https://doi.org/10.1257/pol.20190573

21.

Goldhaber

Lavery

Theobald

(2015). Uneven playing field? Assessing the teacher quality gap between advantaged and disadvantaged students. Educational Researcher, 44(5), 293–307. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X15592622

22.

Grissom

J. A.

Bartanen

(2022). Potential race and gender biases in high-stakes teacher observations. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 41(1), 131–161. https://doi.org/10.1002/pam.22352

23.

Harris

D. N.

Sass

T. R.

(2014). Skills, productivity and the evaluation of teacher performance. Economics of Education Review, 40, 183–204. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.econedurev.2014.03.002

24.

Hart

Young

Chen

Zou

Allensworth

E. M.

(2020). Supporting school improvement: Early findings from a reexamination of the 5Essentials Survey [Research report]. University of Chicago Consortium on School Research.

25.

Jacob

B. A.

Lefgren

(2008). Can principals identify effective teachers? evidence on subjective performance evaluation in education. Journal of Labor Economics, 26(1), 101–136. https://doi.org/10.1086/522974

26.

Kalogrides

Loeb

(2013). Different teachers, different peers: The magnitude of student sorting within schools. Educational Researcher, 42(6), 304–316. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X13495087

27.

Kane

T. J.

Staiger

D. O.

(2008). Estimating teacher impacts on student achievement: An experimental evaluation (Technical report). National Bureau of Economic Research.

28.

Kane

T. J.

Staiger

D. O.

(2012). Gathering feedback for teaching: Combining high-quality observations with student surveys and achievement gains (Research paper). MET Project. Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

29.

Kane

T. J.

Taylor

E. S.

Tyler

J. H.

Wooten

A. L.

(2011). Identifying effective classroom practices using student achievement data. Journal of Human Resources, 46(3), 587–613. https://doi.org/10.1353/jhr.2011.0010

30.

Kraft

M. A.

Papay

J. P.

(2014). Can professional environments in schools promote teacher development? Explaining heterogeneity in returns to teaching experience. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 36(4), 476–500. https://doi.org/10.3102/0162373713519496

31.

Lankford

Loeb

Wyckoff

(2002). Teacher sorting and the plight of urban schools: A descriptive analysis. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 24(1), 37–62. https://doi.org/10.3102/01623737024001037

32.

Loeb

Soland

Fox

(2014). Is a good teacher a good teacher for all? Comparing value-added of teachers with their English learners and non-English learners. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 36(4), 457–475. https://doi.org/10.3102/0162373714527788

33.

McCaffrey

D. F.

Staiger

D. O.

Lockwood

(2013). A composite estimator of effective teaching (Research paper). MET Project. Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

34.

Papay

J. P.

(2011). Different tests, different answers: The stability of teacher value-added estimates across outcome measures. American Educational Research Journal, 48(1), 163–193. https://doi.org/10.3102/0002831210362589

35.

Paufler

N. A.

Amrein-Beardsley

(2014). The random assignment of students into elementary classrooms: Implications for value-added analyses and interpretations. American Educational Research Journal, 51(2), 328–362. https://doi.org/10.3102/0002831213508299

36.

Rivkin

S. G.

Hanushek

E. A.

Kain

J. F.

(2005). Teachers, schools, and academic achievement. Econometrica, 73(2), 417–458. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0262.2005.00584.x

37.

Rockoff

J. E.

(2004). The impact of individual teachers on student achievement: Evidence from panel data. American Economic Review, 94(2), 247–252. https://doi.org/10.1257/0002828041302244

38.

Rockoff

J. E.

Speroni

(2011). Subjective and objective evaluations of teacher effectiveness: Evidence from New York City. Labour Economics, 18(5), 687–696. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.labeco.2011.02.004

39.

Rothstein

(2009). Student sorting and bias in value-added estimation: Selection on observables and unobservables. Education Finance and Policy, 4(4), 537–571. https://doi.org/10.1162/edfp.2009.4.4.537

40.

Rothstein

(2017). Measuring the impacts of teachers: Comment. American Economic Review, 107(6), 1656–1684. https://doi.org/10.1257/aer.20141440

41.

Sanders

W. L.

Horn

S. P.

(1998). Research findings from the Tennessee Value-Added Assessment System (TVAAS) Database: Implications for educational evaluation and research. Journal of Personnel Evaluation in Education, 12(3), 247–256. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1008067210518

42.

Sartain

Stoelinga

S. R.

Brown

E. R.

(2011). Rethinking teacher evaluation in Chicago: Lessons learned from classroom observations, principal-teacher conferences, and district implementation (Research report). ERIC.

43.

Sartain

Zou

Gutiérrez

Shyjka

Hinton

Brown

E. R.

Easton

J. Q.

(2020). Teacher evaluation in CPS: Perceptions of REACH implementation, five years in (Research brief). University of Chicago Consortium on School Research.

44.

Sporte

S. E.

Jiang

J. Y.

(2016). Teacher evaluation in practice: Year 3 teacher and administrator perceptions of REACH (Research brief). ERIC.

45.

Steinberg

M. P.

Donaldson

M. L.

(2016). The new educational accountability: Understanding the landscape of teacher evaluation in the post-NCLB era. Education Finance and Policy, 11(3), 340–359. https://doi.org/10.1162/EDFP_a_00186

46.

Steinberg

M. P.

Garrett

(2016). Classroom composition and measured teacher performance: What do teacher observation scores really measure? Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 38(2), 293–317. https://doi.org/10.3102/0162373715616249

47.

Whitehurst

Chingos

M. M.

Lindquist

K. M.

(2014). Evaluating teachers with classroom observations. Brown Center on Education Policy: Brookings Institute.

Supplementary Material

Please find the following supplemental material available below.

For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.

For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.

0.31 MB