Racial gaps in teacher performance ratings have emerged nationwide across newly implemented educator evaluation systems. Using Chicago Public Schools data, we quantify the magnitude of the race gap in teachers’ classroom observation scores, examine its determinants, and describe the potential implications for teacher diversity. Between-school differences explain most of the race gap and within-school classroom-level differences—poverty, incoming achievement, and prior-year misconduct of a teacher’s students—explain the remainder of the race gap. Teachers’ value-added scores explain none of the race gap. Leveraging within-teacher variation in the teacher–evaluator race match, we find that racial mismatch does not influence observation scores. Adjusting observation scores for classroom and school context will generate more equitable ratings of teacher performance and mitigate potential adverse consequences for teacher diversity.

在新实施的教育者评估系统中，全国教师表现评分出现种族差距。利用芝加哥公立学校的数据，我们量化了教师课堂观察成绩中种族差距的大小，研究了其决定因素，并描述了对教师多样性的潜在影响。学校之间的差异可以解释大多数种族差距，而学校内课堂水平的差异（贫困，入学成绩以及老师的学生去年的过失行为）可以解释其余的种族差距。老师的增值分数不能解释种族差距。利用教师与评估员竞赛中教师内部的差异，我们发现种族不匹配不会影响观察分数。