The effects of making performance information public: Regression discontinuity evidence from Los Angeles teachers

This paper uses school-district data and a regression discontinuity design to study the effects of making teachers' value-added ratings available to the public and searchable by name. We find that classroom compositions change as a result of this new information. In particular, high-scoring students sort into the classrooms of published, high-value added teachers. This sorting occurs when there is within school-grade variation in teachers' value added.