At the beginning of the year, the Tennessee Education Research Alliance at Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College published a study exploring the relationship of race and gender in teacher evaluations. The report, titled "Exploring Race and Gender Gaps in Classroom Observation Scores in Tennessee," uses administrative data — including teacher observation and demographic information — from the 2011-12 school year through the 2018-19 school year.
To review this study and address its impact on teachers and school faculty, the Education Trust in Tennessee held a webinar Thursday evening. The findings were presented by Jason Grissom, the study’s first author.
The study finds that “Black teachers and male teachers in Tennessee consistently receive lower classroom observation scores than their White and female peers each year, across every observation system (e.g., COACH, TEAM), and at every school level." The study reports that these findings remain true “even when they have similar qualifications and their students achieve similar test scores and other outcomes.” While the study does not indicate any major factors that explain the gender gap, the race gap can be attributed to “the racial isolation of Black teachers, the differing characteristics of students who are assigned to Black and White teachers, and the race of the teacher’s observer.”
The study notes that while performance gaps seem small, with white women averaging around 0.3 points higher on a five-point scale than their Black male counterparts, this difference can still reflect changes in teachers’ level of effectiveness scores and affect personnel decisions. It also notes that score differences between teachers with similar qualifications “reflect some form of bias in the evaluation system or its processes.”
The study examines factors that could show decreased evaluation scores in Black teachers, such as the students they teach or the race of their co-workers. The study finds that Black teachers typically work in schools with more impoverished students, and those who don’t are more likely to be assigned students of color, those receiving free and reduced lunches (a measurement of poverty), and those with lower test scores and attendance rates, among other factors. Furthermore, “In schools with more racially diverse faculties, gaps are smaller, and, in fact, are erased (statistically) in schools where Black teachers make up about half a school’s teachers."
Two panels followed Thursday evening's presentation, which was hosted by the Education Trust in Tennessee. The first focused on the study’s findings in the context of schools and was moderated by Diarese George, founder and executive director of Tennessee Educators of Color Alliance. On the panel were a Knox County school teacher, a Hamilton County deputy superintendent and Nashville’s Ricky Gibbs, executive principal of Warner Elementary. (Gibbs has also been featured in WPLN’s The Promise.)
“[The research] was kind of difficult to hear, but not all the way shocking to hear either,” said Gibbs. “In a state where we have done so much to try to increase recruitment of teachers of color — seeing this information and hearing it, to me, just really, really strengthens the fact that if we're going to be truly … aware of this information, we need to make sure that we internalize this information to get to the root causes. Because if we're going to recruit men of color, men in general, or educators of color, and keep them in our profession, they must know that they're gonna be treated fairly. We can't say that we are valuing people of color and we need role models in classrooms, and then we evaluate them, basically, out of the educational system.”
The second panel was focused on policy and moderated by Gini Pupo-Walker, the Metro Nashville School Board's District 8 representative and director of the Education Trust in Tennessee. Among the panelists were Eric Duncan, senior analyst of educator diversity at the trust, who noted that this issue isn’t unique to Tennessee. Terrance Gibson, executive director of the Tennessee Education Association, also spoke on the ways in which this study can and should affect legislation.
“For many years, educators of color in Tennessee, our members, have talked about this being an issue, but now having the data to back it up really is going to help move things forward,” said Gibson. He also noted that Tennessee has “no standing committee, organization or state agency that is solely responsible and accountable for reviewing the evaluation process,” but that the TEA is working to introduce legislation to change that.
