Revisiting The Widget Effect Teacher: Evaluation Reforms and the Distribution of Teacher Effectiveness

• Published in: Educational researcher Vol. 46; no. 5; pp. 234 - 249
• Main Authors: Kraft, Matthew A., Gilmour, Allison F.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publishing 01.06.2017; SAGE Publications; American Educational Research Association
• Subjects: Administrator Attitudes; Case Studies; Educational Change; Elementary School Teachers; Evaluation Methods; Evaluators; Faculty Development; Interviews; Mixed Methods Research; Policy Analysis; Principals; Public schools; Reforms; School Districts; Secondary School Teachers; Surveys; Teacher Attitudes; Teacher Effectiveness; Teacher Evaluation; Teacher evaluations; Teachers; Urban Schools; United States > US; evaluation; educational reform; descriptive analysis; educational policy; mixed methods; policy analysis; school/teacher effectiveness; survey research; professional development; econometric analysis; teacher assessment
• ISSN: 0013-189X; 1935-102X
• DOI: 10.3102/0013189X17718797

In 2009, the New Teacher Project's The Widget Effect documented the failure of U.S. public school districts to recognize and act on differences in teacher effectiveness. We revisit these findings by compiling teacher performance ratings across 24 states that adopted major reforms to their teacher evaluation systems. In the vast majority of these states, the percentage of teachers rated unsatisfactory remains less than 1%. However, the full distributions of ratings vary widely across states, with 0.7% to 28.7% rated below proficient and 6% to 62% rated above proficient. We present original survey data from an urban district illustrating that evaluators perceive more than 3 times as many teachers in their schools to be below proficient than they rate as such. Interviews with principals reveal several potential explanations for these patterns.