Today, a research team from the University of Virginia, Brown University, and Stanford University make public results from two new studies based on data from recent years (2013-2017). In the first study, Thomas Dee, professor at Stanford University, Jessalynn James, a post-doctoral fellow at Brown University, and Jim Wyckoff, professor at the University of Virginia, find that the incentives created by IMPACT continue to encourage some low-performing teachers to voluntarily exit and to instigate improvement among those who remain. In a second paper, James and Wyckoff find that what might first appear to be relatively high turnover among DCPS teachers is largely driven by the turnover of low-performing teachers, whose exit improves student achievement.
“Overall, these findings indicate that rigorous teacher evaluation can make an important difference for both teaching quality and, most importantly, for student achievement.” said James, formerly a PhD student at the University of Virginia.