Why Does Education Policy so Frequently Disappoint? Lessons from Teacher Evaluation

October 2026

Decades of K–12 education reform — much of it focused on teaching — have produced a persistent paradox: policies grounded in strong evidence disappoint when scaled, even as some implementations achieve striking success. Teacher evaluation is the clearest case. Cincinnati, Dallas, Chicago, and Washington, DC produced meaningful achievement gains, while forty-four state systems, Houston, and a heavily funded, pre-screened seven-site demonstration produced little or none. The weight of the evidence indicates that teacher evaluation policy failed in implementation rather than design. Less clear is why. I explore three complementary reasons: limits of the mechanisms, failure to share responsibility, and failure to adapt; each made predictable by the political economy of education reform. Recent NAEP results have renewed calls for reform. This paper summarizes what design and implementation guidance the record supports as necessary, which remain unresolved, and what research would resolve them.

Keywords

School reform, education policy, teacher evaluation

Education level

K-12 Education

Topics

Policy, Politics, and Governance