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Broken Gears: The Value Added of Higher Education on Teachers' Academic Achievement

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  • Balcázar, Carlos Felipe

    (World Bank)

  • Nopo, Hugo R.

    (World Bank)

Abstract

A growing literature establishes that good teachers are essential for high quality educational systems. However, little is known about teachers' skills formation during their college years. In this paper we use a novel panel data set combining two standardized tests for Colombian students: one that is taken at the end of senior year in high school and the other when students are near graduation from college. Accounting for selection into majors we test for the extent to which education majors relatively improve or deteriorate their skills in comparison to students in other programs. We analyze three sets of skills: quantitative reasoning, native language (Spanish) and foreign language (English). After around 5 years of college, teachers' skills vis-à-vis those in other majors deteriorate in quantitative reasoning, although they deteriorate less for those in math-oriented programs. For native and foreign language we do not find evidence of robust changes in relative learning.

Suggested Citation

  • Balcázar, Carlos Felipe & Nopo, Hugo R., 2014. "Broken Gears: The Value Added of Higher Education on Teachers' Academic Achievement," IZA Discussion Papers 8477, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8477
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    Blog mentions

    As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
    1. La profesión docente: ¿por qué no atrae a los mejores?*
      by Hugo Ñopo in La educación de calidad es posible on 2015-06-29 20:10:20

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    career choice; self-selection; relative learning mobility; teacher performance;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I2 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education
    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity

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