Helping to Cultivate a More Equitable Teacher Evaluation System in Dallas: An Analysis of Dallas's Teacher Excellence Initiative

• In Event: Evaluating Accountability Systems and Local Accountability Initiatives

Abstract

The Teacher Excellence Initiative (TEI) in the Dallas Independent School District is used to measure the impact teachers have on students via measurements of growth in student achievement, observed performance, and student surveys. Since implementation, Dallas has claimed multiple improvements in student performance. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether these outcomes were valid and if true could be causally attributed to TEI. Researchers analyzed State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) and National Assessments of Educational Progress (NAEP) tests, before and after TEI implementation and found that post-TEI, in mathematics and reading, Dallas posted substantive score gains on the STAAR tests that were not matched on the NAEP tests.

Authors

• Audrey Amrein-Beardsley, Arizona State University

• Margarita Pivovarova, Arizona State University