Evaluating Teacher Impact on Student Performance: A Case Study at the United States Military Academy

Abstract

As instructors at the United States Military Academy, we are constantly looking at ways to evaluate our educational experience and improve upon it. Often, our cadets’ relative performance inside the classroom serves as a default metric with which we evaluate our impact. However, we know that cadets often prioritize their studies based upon their goals and competing requirements; therefore, does a cadet’s academic performance indicate anything about an instructor’s impact? By comparing 377 cadets and 13 instructors across 5 courses, this paper attempts to determine the influence of instructors on cadets’ performance on their course end final. After controlling for cadet past performance and course, we found no evidence to suggest that a cadet’s instructor impacts their performance on the course end final. This finding supports the idea that cadets perform to their desired level of academic performance and that their performance should not be used as a primary feedback mechanism for instructor efficacy. In fact, we observed that the best predictor of cadet performance was their previous, cumulative academic performance (APSC). Instructors, therefore, should focus on student engagement, the holistic development of cadets, and use more subjective and nuanced feedback within the classroom to guide their lessons.