Contact: Michelle Lerner (DCPS)
(202) 805-2885
(Washington, DC) Student achievement at DC Public Schools (DCPS) improved because of IMPACT, the teacher evaluation program at DCPS, according to a study released this week by the Stanford Graduate School of Education and the University of Virginia Curry School of Education.
When low-performing teachers left DCPS under IMPACT, student learning increased by at least four months of learning in math and reading. These statistically significant gains were concentrated in high-poverty schools.
“Four more months of learning in both math and reading is incredibly exciting to see,” said Jason Kamras, Chief of the Office of Instructional Practice. “That’s life-changing for our students. This is just more evidence of how extraordinary DCPS teachers are.”
The study, by researchers from the Stanford Graduate School of Education and the University of Virginia Curry School of Education, is the first study to show positive effects on student achievement from differential retention as part of a teacher-evaluation program.
“When a Highly Effective or Effective teacher is at the helm of the classroom, DCPS students thrive and student achievement substantially improves,” says Kaya Henderson, Chancellor of DC Public Schools.
While the study did show slight negative results when high-performing teachers left DCPS, the results were not statistically significant.
“In other school districts, we usually observe negative effects when high-performing teachers leave,” said Thomas S. Dee, professor of education at Stanford and an author of the study. “That doesn’t appear to be the case in DCPS. The turnover of high-performing teachers is a challenging problem but, in DCPS, we find that the exit of high performers generally has small and statistically insignificant effects on student achievement.”
This is the second study on IMPACT from the Stanford Graduate School of Education and the University of Virginia Curry School of Education. More information on how teacher performance improved under IMPACT can be found here.
Follow more news about human capital at DC Public Schools at #DCPSRising.