Reformed teacher evaluation in rural Missouri: Main and moderated relationships with student achievement and relationships-to-expenditure ratios

Abstract

We extend rural educator labor market research by estimating a reformed teacher evaluation system's relationships with student achievement, identifying the settings with positive relationships, and incorporating evaluation expenditures. That the literature omits these contributions is concerning, as research implies it hinders evidence-based policymaking for rural districts, which outnumber urban districts in the USA. We apply a difference-in-differences framework to rural Missouri administrative data. Missouri districts could design and maintain reformed systems or outsource these tasks for a small fee to organizations like the Network for Educator Effectiveness (NEE), an evaluation system created for rural users. NEE does not affect student achievement on average but may improve math and possibly reading achievement in rural schools where the average student's prior-year achievement score is below the state average or the average teacher's years of experience are below the state average.