Working Paper: NBER ID: w22226
Authors: C. Kirabo Jackson
Abstract: This paper extends the traditional test-score value-added model of teacher quality to allow for the possibility that teachers affect a variety of student outcomes through their effects on both students’ cognitive and noncognitive skill. Results show that teachers have effects on skills not measured by test-scores, but reflected in absences, suspensions, course grades, and on-time grade progression. Teacher effects on these non-test-score outcomes in 9th grade predict effects on high-school completion and predictors of college-going—above and beyond their effects on test scores. Relative to using only test-score measures of teacher quality, including both test-score and non-test-score measures more than doubles the predictable variability of teacher effects on these longer-run outcomes.
Keywords: teacher quality; noncognitive skills; test scores; long-run outcomes; high school graduation
JEL Codes: I21; J00
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| teachers (A21) | noncognitive skills (G53) |
| noncognitive skills (G53) | high school completion (I21) |
| noncognitive skills (G53) | college attendance (I23) |
| teachers (A21) | long-run outcomes (P27) |
| test scores (C52) | long-run outcomes (P27) |
| teacher effects on behavior index (C92) | high school graduation likelihood (I21) |
| teacher effects on test scores (A21) | high school graduation likelihood (I21) |
| teacher effects on behavior index (C92) | college attendance (I23) |
| teacher effects on test scores (A21) | college attendance (I23) |