IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/nbr/nberwo/14608.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

National Board Certification and Teacher Effectiveness: Evidence from a Random Assignment Experiment

Author

Listed:
  • Steven Cantrell
  • Jon Fullerton
  • Thomas J. Kane
  • Douglas O. Staiger

Abstract

The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) assesses teaching practice based on videos and essays submitted by teachers. We compared the performance of classrooms of elementary students in Los Angeles randomly assigned to NBPTS applicants and to comparison teachers. We used information on whether each applicant achieved certification, along with information on each applicant's NBPTS scaled score and subscores, to test whether the NBPTS score was related to teacher impacts on student achievement. We found that students randomly assigned to highly-rated applicants performed better than students assigned to comparison teachers, while students assigned to poorly-rated applicants performed worse. Estimates were similar using data on pairs of teachers that were not randomly assigned. Our results suggest a number of changes that would improve the predictive power of the NBPTS process.

Suggested Citation

  • Steven Cantrell & Jon Fullerton & Thomas J. Kane & Douglas O. Staiger, 2008. "National Board Certification and Teacher Effectiveness: Evidence from a Random Assignment Experiment," NBER Working Papers 14608, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:14608
    Note: CH ED LS
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.nber.org/papers/w14608.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Charles T. Clotfelter & Helen F. Ladd & Jacob L. Vigdor, 2007. "How and Why do Teacher Credentials Matter for Student Achievement?," NBER Working Papers 12828, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Kane, Thomas J. & Rockoff, Jonah E. & Staiger, Douglas O., 2008. "What does certification tell us about teacher effectiveness? Evidence from New York City," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 27(6), pages 615-631, December.
    3. Paul T. Decker & Daniel P. Mayer & Steven Glazerman, "undated". "The Effects of Teach For America on Students: Findings from a National Evaluation," Mathematica Policy Research Reports c8b5eb6d499c465c86a96bee4, Mathematica Policy Research.
    4. Brian A. Jacob & Lars Lefgren, 2005. "Principals as Agents: Subjective Performance Measurement in Education," NBER Working Papers 11463, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Robert J. LaLonde, 1984. "Evaluating the Econometric Evaluations of Training Programs with Experimental Data," Working Papers 563, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section..
    6. Douglas N. Harris & Tim R. Sass, 2009. "The effects of NBPTS-certified teachers on student achievement," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(1), pages 55-80.
    7. LaLonde, Robert J, 1986. "Evaluating the Econometric Evaluations of Training Programs with Experimental Data," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 76(4), pages 604-620, September.
    8. repec:mpr:mprres:4150 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. repec:mpr:mprres:4012 is not listed on IDEAS
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. repec:mpr:mprres:6361 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Victor Lavy, 2011. "What Makes an Effective Teacher? Quasi-Experimental Evidence," NBER Working Papers 16885, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Bernhard Enzi, 2017. "The Effect of Pre-Service Cognitive and Pedagogical Teacher Skills on Student Achievement Gains: Evidence from German Entry Screening Exams," ifo Working Paper Series 243, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich.
    4. Lisa Barrow & Linda Cavalluzzo & Thomas Geraghty & Christine Mokher & Lauren Sartain, 2020. "The Signaling, Screening, and Human Capital Effects of National Board Certification: Evidence from Chicago and Kentucky High Schools," Working Paper Series WP-2020-06, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.
    5. Lockheed, Marlaine E., 2014. "Teacher opinions on performance incentives : evidence from the Kyrgyz Republic," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6752, The World Bank.
    6. Jacob, Brian A. & Rockoff, Jonah E. & Taylor, Eric S. & Lindy, Benjamin & Rosen, Rachel, 2018. "Teacher applicant hiring and teacher performance: Evidence from DC public schools," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 166(C), pages 81-97.
    7. World Bank, 2013. "What Matters Most for Teacher Policies : A Framework Paper," World Bank Publications - Reports 20143, The World Bank Group.
    8. Tavares, Priscilla Albuquerque, 2015. "The impact of school management practices on educational performance: Evidence from public schools in São Paulo," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 1-15.
    9. Cowan, James & Goldhaber, Dan, 2018. "Do bonuses affect teacher staffing and student achievement in high poverty schools? Evidence from an incentive for national board certified teachers in Washington State," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 138-152.
    10. Grönqvist, Erik & Hensvik, Lena & Thoresson, Anna, 2020. "Teacher career opportunities and school quality," Working Paper Series 2020:2, IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy.
    11. Vegas, Emiliana & Ganimian, Alejandro, 2013. "Theory and Evidence on Teacher Policies in Developed and Developing Countries," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 4597, Inter-American Development Bank.
    12. Grönqvist, Erik & Hensvik, Lena & Thoresson, Anna, 2022. "Teacher career opportunities and school quality," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    13. Christina Clark Tuttle & Tara Anderson & Steven Glazerman, "undated". "ABCTE Teachers in Florida and Their Effect on Student Performance," Mathematica Policy Research Reports bbf7856707e44bb79be7599a2, Mathematica Policy Research.
    14. Victor Lavy, 2016. "Editor's Choice What Makes an Effective Teacher? Quasi-Experimental Evidence," CESifo Economic Studies, CESifo Group, vol. 62(1), pages 88-125.
    15. Johan Coenen & Ilja Cornelisz & Wim Groot & Henriette Maassen van den Brink & Chris Van Klaveren, 2018. "Teacher Characteristics And Their Effects On Student Test Scores: A Systematic Review," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(3), pages 848-877, July.
    16. Chingos, Matthew M. & Peterson, Paul E., 2011. "It's easier to pick a good teacher than to train one: Familiar and new results on the correlates of teacher effectiveness," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 30(3), pages 449-465, June.
    17. Berlinski, Samuel & Ramos, Alejandra, 2020. "Teacher mobility and merit pay: Evidence from a voluntary public award program," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 186(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jonah E. Rockoff & Brian A. Jacob & Thomas J. Kane & Douglas O. Staiger, 2011. "Can You Recognize an Effective Teacher When You Recruit One?," Education Finance and Policy, MIT Press, vol. 6(1), pages 43-74, January.
    2. Kane, Thomas J. & Rockoff, Jonah E. & Staiger, Douglas O., 2008. "What does certification tell us about teacher effectiveness? Evidence from New York City," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 27(6), pages 615-631, December.
    3. Vegas, E & Ganimian, A. J., 2013. "Theory and Evidence on Teacher Policies in Developed and Developing Countries," Working Paper 104291, Harvard University OpenScholar.
    4. Jesse Rothstein, 2007. "Do Value-Added Models Add Value? Tracking, Fixed Effects, and Causal Inference," Working Papers 1036, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Center for Economic Policy Studies..
    5. Brian P. Gill & Jennifer S. Lerner & Paul Meosky, "undated". "Re-Imagining Accountability in K-12 Education: A Behavioral Science Perspective," Mathematica Policy Research Reports d0c19d0709b641259fe391b2e, Mathematica Policy Research.
    6. Michael J. Podgursky & Matthew G. Springer, 2007. "Teacher performance pay: A review," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(4), pages 909-950.
    7. Johan Coenen & Ilja Cornelisz & Wim Groot & Henriette Maassen van den Brink & Chris Van Klaveren, 2018. "Teacher Characteristics And Their Effects On Student Test Scores: A Systematic Review," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(3), pages 848-877, July.
    8. Baird, Matthew D. & Engberg, John & Gutierrez, Italo A., 2022. "RCT evidence on differential impact of US job training programmes by pre-training employment status," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    9. Dettmann, E. & Becker, C. & Schmeißer, C., 2011. "Distance functions for matching in small samples," Computational Statistics & Data Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 55(5), pages 1942-1960, May.
    10. David Card, 2022. "Design-Based Research in Empirical Microeconomics," Working Papers 654, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section..
    11. James J. Heckman, 1991. "Randomization and Social Policy Evaluation Revisited," NBER Technical Working Papers 0107, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Jeffrey Smith, 2000. "A Critical Survey of Empirical Methods for Evaluating Active Labor Market Policies," Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics (SJES), Swiss Society of Economics and Statistics (SSES), vol. 136(III), pages 247-268, September.
    13. Sant’Anna, Pedro H.C. & Zhao, Jun, 2020. "Doubly robust difference-in-differences estimators," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 219(1), pages 101-122.
    14. Kitagawa, Toru & Muris, Chris, 2016. "Model averaging in semiparametric estimation of treatment effects," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 193(1), pages 271-289.
    15. Rajeev Dehejia, 2013. "The Porous Dialectic: Experimental and Non-Experimental Methods in Development Economics," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2013-011, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    16. Michael Gerfin & Michael Lechner, 2002. "A Microeconometric Evaluation of the Active Labour Market Policy in Switzerland," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 112(482), pages 854-893, October.
    17. Sergio Afcha & Jose García-Quevedo, 2016. "The impact of R&D subsidies on R&D employment composition," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 25(6), pages 955-975.
    18. Susan Athey & Guido W. Imbens & Stefan Wager, 2018. "Approximate residual balancing: debiased inference of average treatment effects in high dimensions," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series B, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 80(4), pages 597-623, September.
    19. Burt S. Barnow & Jeffrey Smith, 2015. "Employment and Training Programs," NBER Chapters, in: Economics of Means-Tested Transfer Programs in the United States, Volume 2, pages 127-234, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    20. Monica Beuran & Gaël Raballand & Julio Revilla, 2011. "Improving Aid Effectiveness in Aid-Dependent Countries: Lessons from Zambia," Documents de travail du Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne 11040, Université Panthéon-Sorbonne (Paris 1), Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:14608. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/nberrus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.