Jackson, C. Kirabo
Researchers: C. Kirabo Jackson
University Affiliation: Cornell University
Email: ck5@cornell.edu
Research Question:
Investigate the relationship between changes in student attributes and changes in teacher quality that are not confounded with changes in school or neighborhood characteristics.
Published: 1
Journal Name or Institutional Affiliation: Journal of Labor Economics
Journal Entry: Vol. 27, No. 2, pp. 213-256
Year: 2009
Findings:
- Schools that experienced a repatriation of Black students experienced a decrease in various measures of teacher quality. This article provides evidence that this was primarily due to changes in labor supply.
- Presents evidence that the relationship between student demographics and teacher quality may be casual.
- School that had an inflow of Black students as a result of policy change had a decrease in the share of high-quality teachers, as measured by years of experience and certification test scores.
- Schools that had an inflow of Black students also experienced a decrease in average estimated teacher effectiveness in math and reading.
- Given that teachers in all Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools were more likely to leave their current school and, more specifically, were more likely to move to other schools in CMS the year before students were reassigned it seems that changes were not demand driven and were instead due to a labor supply response.
- The widening Black-White achievement gap associated with residential and school segregation and the negative relationship between student achievement and percentage of Black students at the school are due, in part, to the endogeneity of teacher quality with respect to student characteristics.
- Those teachers who left schools that experienced an inflow of Black students were on average more experienced, White, and had higher value added than those who stayed.
- Black teachers were less likely to leave schools, whereas White teachers were not differentially affected by an exogenous inflow of Black students.