Working Paper: NBER ID: w22472
Authors: Eric A. Hanushek; Steven G. Rivkin; Jeffrey C. Schiman
Abstract: It is widely believed that teacher turnover adversely affects the quality of instruction in urban schools serving predominantly disadvantaged children, and a growing body of research investigates various components of turnover effects. The evidence at first seems contradictory, as the quality of instruction appears to decline following turnover despite the fact that most work shows higher attrition for less effective teachers. This raises concerns that confounding factors bias estimates of transition differences in teacher effectiveness, the adverse effects of turnover or both. After taking more extensive steps to account for nonrandom sorting of students into classrooms and endogenous teacher exits and grade-switching, we replicate existing findings of adverse selection out of schools and negative effects of turnover in lower-achievement schools. But we find that these turnover effects can be fully accounted for by the resulting loss in experience and productivity loss following the reallocation of some incumbent teachers to different grades.
Keywords: Teacher Turnover; Instructional Quality; Urban Schools; Disadvantaged Children
JEL Codes: H4; I20; J45
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| teacher turnover (J63) | instructional quality (L15) |
| loss of experience among teachers (I21) | instructional quality (L15) |
| productivity declines due to grade reassignments (D29) | instructional quality (L15) |
| adverse selection (D82) | teacher turnover (J63) |
| teacher turnover (J63) | loss of experienced teachers (I21) |
| allocation of teachers to grades (A21) | instructional quality (L15) |