Teacher Evaluation in Tennessee: What We Have Learned from a Decade of Research

In this brief, we draw on a broad body of research evaluating Tennessee’s evaluation system over the last ten years to explore whether it has led to gains in student achievement.

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Published:
July 2021

Authors:
J. Edward Guthrie
Mónica Hernández
Jason A. Grissom

Key Findings

  • Student achievement improved more after Tennessee's evaluation reform than we would have expected otherwise.
  • Teacher retention decisions became more selective with respect to teacher performance following evaluation reform.
  • The rate of teachers' year-over-year improvement increased following evaluation reform.
  • Tennessee's teachers increasingly perceive the evaluation system to be leading to improvements in their practice and students' achievement.

Suggested Citation

Guthrie, J. E., Hernández, M., & Grissom, J. A. (2020). Teacher evaluation in Tennessee: What we have learned from a decade of research. Tennessee Education Research Alliance. Teacher Evaluation Synthesis


J. Edward Guthrie

J. Edward Guthrie

J. Edward Guthrie is a Research Associate at the Tennessee Education Research Alliance

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Mónica Hernández

Mónica Hernández

Mónica Hernández joins the TERA team as a Research Associate. She oversees and conducts the technical work of TERA's professional learning research strand and manages TERA's data warehouse. Prior to joining TERA, Mónica was a postdoctoral fellow at the Education Research Alliance for New Orleans at Tulane University. She earned her doctorate in Economics and Public Policy from the University of Michigan in 2016, and her master's and bachelor's in Economics and Mathematics from Universidad de los Andes in Bogotá, Colombia. To learn more about Mónica's work, visit her webpage.

Email: monica.hernandez@vanderbilt.edu

Jason A. Grissom

Jason A. Grissom

Jason A. Grissom is Patricia and Rodes Hart Professor of Public Policy and Education at Vanderbilt University's Peabody College and faculty director of the Tennessee Education Research Alliance.

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