ERIC Number: ED565852
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 2013-Mar
Pages: 41
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Teacher Quality at the High-School Level: The Importance of Accounting for Tracks. Working Paper 17722. Revised
Jackson, C. Kirabo
National Bureau of Economic Research
Unlike in elementary school, high-school teacher effects may be confounded with both selection to tracks and unobserved track-level treatments. I document sizable confounding track effects, and show that traditional tests for the existence of teacher effects are likely biased. After accounting for these biases, high-school algebra and English teachers have much smaller test-score effects than found in previous studies. Moreover, unlike in elementary school, value-added estimates are weak predictors of teachers' future performance. Results indicate that either (a) teachers are less influential in high school than in elementary school, or (b) test scores are a poor metric to measure teacher quality at the high-school level. Appended are: (1) Distribution of number of teachers in each school-track year cell, (2) Distribution of student observations by the distribution of number of teachers in each school-track cell with the implied required degree of freedom adjustment; (3) Distribution of the number of classes per teacher and per teacher year; (4) Dispersion of teacher effects (estimated without track fixed effects) across and within tracks. Also included are: Appendix Note 1: Matching Teachers to Students; Appendix Note 2: Deriving the Degree of Freedom Adjustment for the Size of Tracks; Appendix Note 3: Is the Lack of an Effect for English Teachers Due to Measurement Error?; Appendix Note 4: Estimating Efficient Teacher Fixed Effects; and Appendix Note 5: Evidence of Student Sorting to Teachers.
Descriptors: Teacher Influence, Value Added Models, Mathematics Instruction, Algebra, English Instruction, Scores, Predictor Variables, Statistical Analysis, Track System (Education), Comparative Analysis, High School Students, Middle School Students, Student Characteristics, Teacher Competencies, Teacher Effectiveness, Bias, Grade 7, Grade 8, Grade 9, Reading Achievement, Mathematics Achievement, Standardized Tests
National Bureau of Economic Research. 1050 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138-5398. Tel: 617-588-0343; Web site: http://www.nber.org
Publication Type: Reports - Evaluative; Numerical/Quantitative Data
Education Level: High Schools; Secondary Education; Elementary Education; Middle Schools; Junior High Schools; Grade 9; Grade 7; Grade 8
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: National Bureau of Economic Research
Identifiers - Location: North Carolina
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
IES Cited: ED544205