The Impact of Performance Ratings on Job Satisfaction for Public School Teachers

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Stanley

Spurred by the U.S. Race to the Top initiative, Tennessee implemented a statewide educator evaluation system in 2011 that uses more differentiated performance ratings. The study merges teacher performance evaluation data with post-evaluation teacher survey data to test how the differentiated ratings affect job satisfaction. Using a regression-discontinuity design, the analysis shows that higher ratings under the new system causally improve teachers’ perceptions of work compared with lower ratings, providing the first causal evidence on this relationship for individual teachers.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages38

Reading Time1 h 36 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Tennessee’s evaluation system and motivation

Impact of Performance Ratings on Teachers’ Job Satisfaction

Job satisfaction, turnover, and policy relevance

American Educational Research Journal April 2017, Vol. 54, No. 2, pp. 241–278 DOI: 10.3102/0002831216687531 􀀂 2017 AERA. [http://aerj](http://aerj).[aera.net](aera.net) The Impact of Performance Ratings on Job Satisfaction for Public School Teachers Cory Koedel Jiaxi Li University of Missouri Matthew G. Springer Vanderbilt University Li Tan University of Missouri Spurred by the federal Race to the Top competition, the state of Tennessee implemented a comprehensive statewide educator evaluation system in 2011. The new system is designed to increase the rigor of evaluations and better differentiate teachers based on performance. The use of more differentiated ratings represents a significant shift in education policy. We merge teacher performance evaluations from the new system with data from post-evaluation teacher surveys to examine the effects of the differentiated ratings on job satisfaction for teachers. Using a regression-discontinuity design, we show that higher ratings under the new system causally improve teachers’perceptions of work relative to lower ratings. Our findings offer the first causal evidence of which we are aware on the relationship between performance ratings and job satisfaction for individual teachers. CORY KOEDEL is an associate professor of economics and public policy at the University of Missouri-Columbia, Department of Economics and Truman School of Public Affairs. His research focuses on teacher quality and compensation, the effects of curriculum materials on student achievement, and the efficacy of higher education institutions. JIAXI LI received his PhD in economics from the University of Missouri-Columbia in 2014. His research focuses on teacher evaluation policies. MATTHEW G. SPRINGER is an assistant professor of public policy and education at Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College, 230 Appleton Place, Nashville, TN, 37204 . USA; [email: matthew.springer@vanderbilt.edu. His](email: matthew.springer@vanderbilt.edu. His) research focuses on incentives, accountability, and compensation. LI TAN is a PhD candidate in economics at the University of Missouri-Columbia. His research focuses on retirement policy and teacher evaluation. Koedel et al. KEYWORDS: personnel evaluation, teacher evaluation, job satisfaction, teacher quality, regression discontinuity Introduction State and local education agencies across the United States are working to improve teacher quality through the adoption of rigorous teacher evaluation systems.1 The development of these systems is motivated in part by a large body of research showing that teachers differ dramatically in their effectiveness (for a recent overview, see Hanushek & Rivkin, 2010) . Beyond directly affecting students’ short-term academic success, more effective teachers have also been shown to positively affect later-life outcomes for students, including wages, college attendance, and teenage childbearing (Chetty, Friedman, & Rockoff, 2014) . The variation in teacher quality that has been consistently documented in empirical research is not reflected in the traditional teacher evaluation systems that are used in most school districts in the United States, which tend to assign similar and favorable performance ratings to the overwhelming majority of teachers (Kraft & Gilmour, 2016; Weisberg, Sexton, Mulhern, & Keeling, 2009) . A rationale for developing new, more rigorous evaluation systems is to construct ratings that better reflect empirically observed performance differences across teachers, which can subsequently be used to improve workforce quality in a number of ways (Boyd, Lankford, Loeb, & Wyckoff, 2011; Condie, Lefgren, & Sims, 2014; Dee & Wyckoff, 2015; Ehlert, Koedel, Parsons, & Podgurksy, 2014; Goldhaber, Cowan, & Walch, 2013; Goldhaber & Theobald, 2013; Hanushek, 2009; Papay, Taylor, Tyler, & Laski, 2016; Springer, Swain, & Rodriguez, 2016; Steinberg & Sartain, 2015; Taylor & Tyler, 2012; Winters & Cowen, 2013)

FAQs

What policy change motivates the study of performance ratings in Tennessee?

Tennessee adopted a statewide educator evaluation system in 2011, requiring annual evaluations and using more differentiated ratings to better reflect teacher performance.

How does the study assess the causal effect of ratings on job satisfaction?

It merges evaluation records with post-evaluation teacher survey data and applies a regression-discontinuity design to estimate causal impacts.

What is the main finding regarding job satisfaction?

Higher performance ratings under the new system causally increase teachers’ perceptions of work relative to lower ratings.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Stanley