Purpose: Many studies have explored school administrator discretion in the implementation of teacher evaluation and observation systems. However, we are unaware of any studies that quantitatively link discretionary administrator behaviors to student outcomes. The purpose of this study was to (a) explore the determinants of observations arising from administrator discretion and (b) explore the extent to which “discretionary observations” were associated with average student achievement scores and disciplinary offenses. Method: We applied multilevel modeling to 3 years of teacher panel data from more than 80% of Tennessee school districts. Findings: Observable characteristics, differences between schools each year, and teacher traits explain more than 80% of the variation in discretionary observations; teacher prior-year observation and composite effectiveness scores were the strongest predictors. No evidence suggested that average student achievement scores or behavior suffered among teachers who received fewer observations than assigned by policy. Average student achievement scores rose among teachers receiving supplementary observations compared with the years when they received the policy-prescribed number. Implications for Research and Practice: Quantitative research can substantially control for discretionary observations using multilevel modeling. Observers might be encouraged to not observe high-performing teachers more than what is prescribed by policy. Observers seemingly deviate from observation policy in ways that do not increase office referrals and may improve student achievement.

目的：许多研究在实施教师评估和观察系统时都探索了学校管理者的酌处权。但是，我们不知道有任何将定量管理者行为与学生成绩定量联系起来的研究。这项研究的目的是（a）探索由管理员酌处产生的观察结果的决定因素，以及（b）探索“自主观察”与平均学生成绩得分和违纪行为相关的程度。方法：我们对田纳西州80％以上学区的3年教师小组数据进行了多级建模。发现：可观察到的特征，每年学校之间的差异以及教师的特质解释了超过80％的自由裁量性观察结果的差异；教师前一年的观察和综合有效性得分是最强的预测因素。没有证据表明，教师获得的平均观察成绩得分或行为受到的观察少于政策规定的观察结果。与接受政策规定的人数相比，接受补充意见的教师的平均学生成绩得分有所提高。对研究和实践的意义：定量研究可以使用多层次建模来实质上控制任意观察。可以鼓励观察者不要观察高绩效老师，而不是政策规定的更多。观察者似乎偏离观察政策的方式不会增加办公室的推荐人数，并且可能会提高学生的学习成绩。