Criterion-Related Validity Evidence for a Standards-Based Teacher Evaluation System

This article reports evidence of the criterion-related validity of a standards-based teacher evaluation system implemented by the Cincinnati Public Schools. The analyses described provide evidence for a moderate level of criterion-related validity of the teacher evaluation ratings. The results indicate that teachers who received the lowest ratings on the Teaching for Learning domain had students who performed lower on state and district tests than predicted based on prior year test scores. Students of teachers who received the highest ratings on this domain generally performed better than predicted. Correlations (Kendall’s tau) between composite scores (the sum of four domain scores) and student achievement ranged from 0.28 to 0.37, depending on subject tested, and were statistically significant at conventional levels.A previous version of this paper was presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Evaluation Association, November 8, 2002 in Washington, D.C.