Teacher evaluations and pupil achievement: Evidence from classroom observations

This paper investigates the relationship between teacher evaluations, conducted by trained evaluators, and pupil performance in primary education in a large city in the Netherlands. Teacher evaluations are based on a detailed rubric containing 75 classroom practices considered to be crucial for effective teaching. We obtain a set of estimates that suggests that the score on this rubric significantly predicts pupil performance gains. Estimated test score gains are in the order of 0.4 standard deviations in math and grammar if a pupil is assigned to a teacher from the top quartile instead of the bottom quartile of the distribution of the evaluation rubric. These are relatively large differences in pupil outcomes, suggesting that evaluations based on the rubric measure teacher practices that matter for pupil performance. This suggests that the rubric seems to have potential for teacher evaluations and teacher effort.