Differential Responses to Teacher Evaluation Incentives: Expectancy, Race, Experience, and Task

Teacher evaluation systems and their associated incentives have produced fairly mixed results. Our analyses are motivated by theory and descriptive evidence that accountability systems are highly racialized, and that individuals are less likely to respond to incentives when they have low expectations of success (and vice versa). Using a regression discontinuity design, we find that Black novices in the District of Columbia Public Schools faced the most negative consequences (dismissal threats) and the least benefits (salary incentives), without responding to either. White novices, in contrast, exhibited high expectations of success and large behavior changes, particularly in response to dismissal threats (0.6 SD ). We also find some evidence of heterogeneity in effects by task difficulty, often used as a proxy for expectancy, though these differences are less stark.