Working Paper: NBER ID: w9545
Authors: Joshua Angrist; Jonathan Guryan
Abstract: The education reform movement includes efforts to raise teacher quality through stricter certification and licensing provisions. Most US states now require public school teachers to pass a standardized test such as the National Teacher Examination. Although any barrier to entry is likely to raise wages in the affected occupation, the theoretical effects of such requirements on teacher quality are ambiguous. Teacher testing places a floor on whatever skills are measured by the required test, but testing is also costly for applicants. These costs shift teacher supply to the left and may be especially likely to deter high-quality applicants from teaching in the public schools. We use the Schools and Staffing Survey to estimate the effect of state teacher testing requirements on teacher wages and teacher quality as measured by educational background. The results suggest that state-mandated teacher testing increases teacher wages with no corresponding increase in quality.
Keywords: teacher testing; teacher quality; state certification; wages
JEL Codes: J45; J48; J31; J24
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| state-mandated teacher testing (J45) | teacher wages (J31) |
| state-mandated teacher testing (A21) | teacher quality (A21) |
| state-mandated teacher testing (J45) | teacher quality (A21) |
| state-mandated teacher testing creates a barrier to entry (J45) | raises wages in the teaching profession (J45) |
| state-mandated teacher testing deters high-quality applicants (J44) | decline in average teacher quality (I21) |