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158108 https://hdl.handle.net/2286/R.I.57056 http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ 2020 346 pages Doctoral Dissertation Academic theses Text eng Geiger, Tray Amrein-Beardsley, Audrey Anderson, Kate McGuire, Keon Holloway, Jessica Arizona State University Doctoral Dissertation Educational Policy and Evaluation 2020 Over the past 20 years in the United States (U.S.), teachers have seen a marked <br/><br/>shift in how teacher evaluation policies govern the evaluation of their performance. <br/><br/>Spurred by federal mandates, teachers have been increasingly held accountable for their <br/><br/>students’ academic achievement, most notably through the use of value-added models <br/><br/>(VAMs)—a statistically complex tool that aims to isolate and then quantify the effect of <br/><br/>teachers on their students’ achievement. This increased focus on accountability ultimately <br/><br/>resulted in numerous lawsuits across the U.S. where teachers protested what they felt <br/><br/>were unfair evaluations informed by invalid, unreliable, and biased measures—most <br/><br/>notably VAMs.<br/><br/>While New Mexico’s teacher evaluation system was labeled as a “gold standard” <br/><br/>due to its purported ability to objectively and accurately differentiate between effective <br/><br/>and ineffective teachers, in 2015, teachers filed suit contesting the fairness and accuracy <br/><br/>of their evaluations. Amrein-Beardsley and Geiger’s (revise and resubmit) initial analyses <br/><br/>of the state’s teacher evaluation data revealed that the four individual measures <br/><br/>comprising teachers’ overall evaluation scores showed evidence of bias, and specifically, <br/><br/>teachers who taught in schools with different student body compositions (e.g., special <br/><br/>education students, poorer students, gifted students) had significantly different scores <br/><br/>than their peers. The purpose of this study was to expand upon these prior analyses by <br/><br/>investigating whether those conclusions still held true when controlling for a variety of <br/><br/>confounding factors at the school, class, and teacher levels, as such covariates were not <br/><br/>included in prior analyses. <br/><br/> <br/><br/>Results from multiple linear regression analyses indicated that, overall, the <br/><br/>measures used to inform New Mexico teachers’ overall evaluation scores still showed <br/><br/>evidence of bias by school-level student demographic factors, with VAMs potentially <br/><br/>being the most susceptible and classroom observations being the least. This study is <br/><br/>especially unique given the juxtaposition of such a highly touted evaluation system also <br/><br/>being one where teachers contested its constitutionality. Study findings are important for <br/><br/>all education stakeholders to consider, especially as teacher evaluation systems and <br/><br/>related policies continue to be transformed. Education Policy Educational tests & measurements Education Policy Teacher evaluation value-added models The Land of Disenchantment: Bias in New Mexico Teacher Evaluation Measures