Work

The Value of Smarter Teachers: International Evidence on Teacher Cognitive Skills and Student Performance

Year: 2014

Type: report

Abstract: International differences in teacher quality are commonly hypothesized to be a key determinant of the large international student performance gaps, but lack of consistent quality measures has precluded testing this.We construct country-level measures of teacher cognitive skills using unique assessment data for 31 countries.We find substantial differences in teacher cognitive skills across countries that are strongly related to student performance.Results are supported by fixed-effects estimation exploiting within-country between-subject variation in teacher skills.A series of robustness and placebo tests indicate a systematic influence of teacher skills as distinct from overall differences among countries in the level of cognitive skills.Moreover, observed country variations in teacher cognitive skills are significantly related to differences in women's access to high-skill occupations outside teaching and to salary premiums for teachers.

Source: National Bureau of Economic Research

DOI: 10.3386/w20727

Authors: Eric Hanushek, Marc Piopiunik, Simon Wiederhold

Institutions: Hoover Institution, National Bureau of Economic Research, Ifo Institute for Economic Research, Stanford University, Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt

Language: English

Topic: School Choice and Performance

Subfield: Education

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDGs: Quality education, Reduced inequalities

Open Access status: green

Funder: Fritz Thyssen Stiftung

OpenAlex ID: W1553700798

Cites: 89

Cited by: 150

Related to: 10