Section i discussion: How do educators use student growth measures in practice?

Through the lens of economics, Corcoran synthesizes the findings in Chaps. 2-7 on how educators interpret and use student growth measures (SGMs). Drawing on the principal-agent model and other insights from personnel economics, this chapter highlights ways in which the design of new educator evaluation systems appears to be falling short. First, educators perceive a weak connection between their actions and the performance measure by which they are evaluated. Second, practitioners question whether SGMs capture the full scope of their work. Third, teachers lack an understanding of how their performance measures are calculated. Finally, practitioners do not view SGMs are useful for improving instruction, and rarely use them to change their practices or priorities.