Teachers in High-Poverty Schools Penalized Unfairly on Observations
In a new study published in Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, researchers found that teachers who work in high-poverty schools have lower classroom observation scores and are unfairly penalized for classroom factors that are out of their control. Researchers analyzed teacher evaluation data from Chicago Public Schools and identified a significant race gap in these teacher-evaluation scores as well. The study showed that Black teachers typically ranked in the 37th percentile in classroom observation scores while white teachers ranked in the 55th percentile. However, once researchers controlled for school and classroom factors such as student poverty, behavioral infractions, and test scores, the gap disappeared. Because Black teachers are more likely to teach in high-poverty schools, researchers suggest that these disparities in evaluation scores could be harmful to efforts to diversify the teaching profession, which is predominantly white.