Teacher Screening, On the Job Evaluations and Performancee

I study the relationship between systematic and complementary screening and on-the-job teacher evaluations by their hierarchy, and teacher performance in secondary school. Using comprehensive French administrative data, I exploit within student across topics variations and I find that the classroom observation grade is the only evaluation grade significantly related to teacher performance. I then investigate whether the classroom observation has an impact on teacher performance and behaviour during the year of evaluation and in subsequent years. An event study shows that the classroom observation has no statistically significant impact on student achievement. I find that teachers are more absent during the months following the evaluation, suggesting that this evaluation provokes a temporary change in teacher behaviour.