Theory of action: performance feedback identifies educators needing support and signals improvement areas, leading to better practice, leadership, and achievement¶

Design · All designs
Evidence · 2 claims (2 for) · 1 study (1 causal), q3 · 0 of 1 report an effect size · 2 claims rest on one study

Description¶

The report's theory of action holds that performance measures provide information that "might identify educators who need support and indicate areas for improvement, leading to improved classroom practice and leadership and boosting student achievement." The intervention operationalizes this by giving educators more frequent, specific feedback with ratings and written narratives, plus self-comparison information from value-added and leadership measures, without attaching formal stakes. The study tested this chain with randomized assignment of schools within eight districts.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

Feedback must be more frequent and more specific than districts' existing evaluation systems
Measures must be reliable enough to distinguish performance (overall scores, not dimension differences, in this study)

Constraints¶

Dimension-level feedback had limited reliability for indicating specific areas of improvement
Effects on mathematics achievement were significant only in Year 1 and no reading/ELA effects were significant

Target Learners¶

K–12 teachers and principals in district evaluation systems

Learning Goals¶

Improving teaching practice and instructional leadership through data-informed feedback

Claims¶

Examples¶

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Key Sources¶

Garet, M.S., Wayne, A.J., Brown, S., Rickles, J., Song, M., and Manzeske, D. (2017). The Impact of Providing Performance Feedback to Teachers and Principals (NCEE 2018-4001). Washington, DC: National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance, Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education. http://ies.ed.gov/ncee

Page metadata

Field	Value
`type`	`design`
`id`	`performance-feedback-theory-of-action`
`title`	`Theory of action: performance feedback identifies educators needing support and signals improvement areas, leading to better practice, leadership, and achievement`
`description`	`The report's theory of action holds that performance measures provide information that "might identify educators who need support and indicate areas for improvement, leading to improved classroom practice and leadersh...`
`status`	`review`
`generated`	by `process:settle-candidates` on `2026-11-01`
`trust`	unverified — no one has confirmed this page's content
`sources`	1 — `garet-2017`

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