Teacher Hiring Instruments and Teacher Value Added: Evidence from Peru

Abstract

In this article, we explore whether the evaluation instruments used to recruit teachers in the national teacher hiring process in Peru are good predictors of teacher effectiveness. To this end, we estimate teacher value-added (TVA) measures for public primary school teachers in 2018 and test for their correlation with the results of the 2015 and 2017 national evaluations. Our findings indicate that among the three sub-tests that comprise the first, centralized stage of the process, the curricular and pedagogical knowledge component has the strongest (and significant) correlation with the TVA measure, while the weakest correlation is found with the reading comprehension component. At the second, decentralized stage, we find no significant correlation with our measures of TVA for math, as well as non-robust correlations for the professional experience and classroom observation evaluation instruments. A positive and significant correlation is found between the classroom observation component and TVA for reading. Moreover, we find correlations between our measure of TVA and several teacher characteristics: TVA is higher for female teachers and for those at higher salary levels while it is lower for teachers with temporary contracts (compared to those with permanent positions).

Screening Teachers in Indonesia: Does Ex-Ante Teacher Characteristics Assessment Predict Teaching Effectiveness?

“…For example, Cruz-Aguayo et al (2017) found no evidence that teacher evaluation processes used in Ecuador-including a written test, a demonstration class, and other measurements-could predict teacher effectiveness in improving student learning outcomes. Meanwhile, Bertoni et al (2020) evaluated the teacher hiring system in Peru, which consists of two stages: a centralized and decentralized selection processes. The authors reported mixed results in terms of the correlation between teacher screening tests and teacher performance measurement.…”

Teacher Careers in Education Systems That Are Coherent for Learning: Choose and Curate Toward Commitment to Capable and Committed Teachers (5Cs)

“…• More generally, using multiple, tailored assessments can improve the accuracy screening processes. An analysis of Peru's centralised assessment for pre-service teacher education graduates, comprising assessments on reading comprehension, logical reasoning, and curricular and pedagogical knowledge, found (perhaps unsurprisingly) that the combined assessment score was more strongly correlated with teachers' subsequent value-added scores in the classroom than were any of the three assessment components individually (Bertoni et al, 2020). (See also Malinen et al, 2012, on Finland's multistage screening process for entry into pre-service teacher education, as mentioned in Section 4.2 below.…”