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Measuring the Impacts of Teachers: Comment

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  • Jesse Rothstein

Abstract

Chetty, Friedman, and Rockoff (2014a, b) study value-added (VA) measures of teacher effectiveness. CFR (2014a) exploits teacher switching as a quasi-experiment, concluding that student sorting creates negligible bias in VA scores. CFR (2014b) finds VA scores are useful proxies for teachers' effects on students' long-run outcomes. I successfully reproduce each in North Carolina data. But I find that the quasi-experiment is invalid, as teacher switching is correlated with changes in student preparedness. Adjusting for this, I find moderate bias in VA scores, perhaps 10-35 percent as large, in variance terms, as teachers' causal effects. Long-run results are sensitive to controls and cannot support strong conclusions.

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  • Jesse Rothstein, 2017. "Measuring the Impacts of Teachers: Comment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 107(6), pages 1656-1684, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:aea:aecrev:v:107:y:2017:i:6:p:1656-84
    Note: DOI: 10.1257/aer.20141440
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Rothstein , Jesse, 2017. "Revisiting the Impacts of Teachers," Department of Economics, Working Paper Series qt5gq4j7kq, Department of Economics, Institute for Business and Economic Research, UC Berkeley.
    2. Jesse Rothstein, 2010. "Teacher Quality in Educational Production: Tracking, Decay, and Student Achievement," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 125(1), pages 175-214.
    3. Joseph G. Altonji & Todd E. Elder & Christopher R. Taber, 2005. "Selection on Observed and Unobserved Variables: Assessing the Effectiveness of Catholic Schools," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 113(1), pages 151-184, February.
    4. Thomas J. Kane & Douglas O. Staiger, 2008. "Estimating Teacher Impacts on Student Achievement: An Experimental Evaluation," NBER Working Papers 14607, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Raj Chetty & John N. Friedman & Jonah E. Rockoff, 2014. "Measuring the Impacts of Teachers II: Teacher Value-Added and Student Outcomes in Adulthood," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 104(9), pages 2633-2679, September.
    6. Jesse Rothstein, 2009. "Student Sorting and Bias in Value-Added Estimation: Selection on Observables and Unobservables," Education Finance and Policy, MIT Press, vol. 4(4), pages 537-571, October.
    7. Chetty, Raj & Friedman, John & Rockoff, Jonah, 2015. "Measuring the Impacts of Teachers: Response to Rothstein (2014)," CEPR Discussion Papers 10768, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    8. Richard K. Mansfield, 2015. "Teacher Quality and Student Inequality," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 33(3), pages 751-788.
    9. Jesse Rothstein, 2017. "Measuring the Impacts of Teachers: Comment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 107(6), pages 1656-1684, June.
    10. Cassandra M. Guarino & Mark D. Reckase & Jeffrey M. Woolrdige, 2014. "Can Value-Added Measures of Teacher Performance Be Trusted?," Education Finance and Policy, MIT Press, vol. 10(1), pages 117-156, November.
    11. Raj Chetty & John N. Friedman & Jonah E. Rockoff, 2014. "Measuring the Impacts of Teachers I: Evaluating Bias in Teacher Value-Added Estimates," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 104(9), pages 2593-2632, September.
    12. Charles T. Clotfelter & Helen F. Ladd & Jacob L. Vigdor, 2006. "Teacher-Student Matching and the Assessment of Teacher Effectiveness," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 41(4).
    13. Jesse Rothstein, 2015. "Teacher Quality Policy When Supply Matters," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 105(1), pages 100-130, January.
    14. Raj Chetty & John N. Friedman & Jonah E. Rockoff, 2017. "Measuring the Impacts of Teachers: Reply," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 107(6), pages 1685-1717, June.
    15. Andrew Bacher-Hicks & Thomas J. Kane & Douglas O. Staiger, 2014. "Validating Teacher Effect Estimates Using Changes in Teacher Assignments in Los Angeles," NBER Working Papers 20657, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
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    Cited by:

    1. Marie C. Hull, 2017. "The time-varying role of the family in student time use and achievement," IZA Journal of Labor Economics, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 6(1), pages 1-20, December.
    2. Karthik Muralidharan & Paul Niehaus & Sandip Sukhtankar & Jeffrey Weaver, 2021. "Improving Last-Mile Service Delivery Using Phone-Based Monitoring," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 13(2), pages 52-82, April.
    3. Raj Chetty & John N. Friedman & Jonah E. Rockoff, 2017. "Measuring the Impacts of Teachers: Reply," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 107(6), pages 1685-1717, June.
    4. Naven, Matthew, 2019. "Human-Capital Formation During Childhood and Adolescence: Evidence from School Quality and Postsecondary Success in California," MPRA Paper 97716, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Bacher-Hicks, Andrew & Chin, Mark J. & Kane, Thomas J. & Staiger, Douglas O., 2019. "An experimental evaluation of three teacher quality measures: Value-added, classroom observations, and student surveys," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    6. Hinrichs, Peter, 2021. "What kind of teachers are schools looking for? Evidence from a randomized field experiment," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 186(C), pages 395-411.
    7. Brian Gill, 2022. "What Should The Future Of Educational Accountability Look Like?," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 41(4), pages 1232-1239, September.
    8. Daniel Borbely & Jonathan Norris & Agnese Romiti, 2023. "Peer Gender and Schooling: Evidence from Ethiopia," Journal of Human Capital, University of Chicago Press, vol. 17(2), pages 207-249.
    9. Eric Parsons & Cory Koedel & Li Tan, 2019. "Accounting for Student Disadvantage in Value-Added Models," Journal of Educational and Behavioral Statistics, , vol. 44(2), pages 144-179, April.
    10. Mookerjee, Sulagna & Slichter, David, 2018. "Test Scores, Schools, and the Geography of Economic Opportunity," MPRA Paper 89101, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. Naven, Matthew, 2020. "Within-School Heterogeneity in Quality: Do Schools Provide Equal Value Added to All Students?," MPRA Paper 100123, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    12. Brown, Annette N. & Wood, Benjamin Douglas Kuflick, 2018. "Which tests not witch hunts: A diagnostic approach for conducting replication research," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal (2007-2020), Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel), vol. 12, pages 1-26.
    13. Jesse Rothstein, 2017. "Measuring the Impacts of Teachers: Comment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 107(6), pages 1656-1684, June.
    14. W. Bentley MacLeod & Miguel Urquiola, 2018. "Is Education Consumption or Investment? Implications for the Effect of School Competition," NBER Working Papers 25117, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    15. Zheng, Lei & Qi, Xiang & Zhang, Chongjiu, 2023. "Can improvements in teacher quality reduce the cognitive gap between urban and rural students in China?," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 100(C).
    16. Canales, Andrea & Maldonado, Luis, 2018. "Teacher quality and student achievement in Chile: Linking teachers' contribution and observable characteristics," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 33-50.
    17. Lars J. Kirkebøen, 2021. "School value-added and longterm student outcomes," Discussion Papers 970, Statistics Norway, Research Department.
    18. Michael J. Andrews & Aaron K. Chatterji & Scott Stern, 2021. "Introduction: Beyond 140 Characters," NBER Chapters, in: The Role of Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Economic Growth, pages 1-28, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    19. Backes, Ben & Cowan, James & Goldhaber, Dan & Koedel, Cory & Miller, Luke C. & Xu, Zeyu, 2018. "The common core conundrum: To what extent should we worry that changes to assessments will affect test-based measures of teacher performance?," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 48-65.
    20. Camelo, Rafael & Ponczek, Vladimir, 2021. "Teacher Turnover and Financial Incentives in Underprivileged Schools: Evidence from a Compensation Policy in a Developing Country," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    21. Torsten Figueiredo Walter, 2020. "Misallocation in the Public Sector? Cross-Country Evidence from Two Million Primary Schools," STICERD - Economic Organisation and Public Policy Discussion Papers Series 70, Suntory and Toyota International Centres for Economics and Related Disciplines, LSE.
    22. Tom Ahn & Esteban Aucejo & Jonathan James, 2021. "The Importance of Matching Effects for Labor Productivity: Evidence from Teacher-Student Interactions," Working Papers 2106, California Polytechnic State University, Department of Economics.
    23. Hermann, Zoltán & Horváth, Hedvig, 2022. "Tanári eredményesség és tanár-diák összepárosítás az általános iskolákban. Empirikus mintázatok három magyarországi tankerület adatai alapján [Teacher effectiveness and teacher-student matching in ," Közgazdasági Szemle (Economic Review - monthly of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Közgazdasági Szemle Alapítvány (Economic Review Foundation), vol. 0(11), pages 1377-1406.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • H75 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - State and Local Government: Health, Education, and Welfare
    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
    • J45 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Public Sector Labor Markets

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