Screen Twice, Cut Once: Assessing the Predictive Validity of Applicant Selection Tools

Dan Goldhaber (), Cyrus Grout () and Nick Huntington-Klein
Additional contact information
Dan Goldhaber: Center for Education Data & Research University of Washington– Bothell Seattle, WA 98103
Cyrus Grout: Center for Education Data & Research University of Washington-- Bothell Seattle, WA 98103

Education Finance and Policy, 2017, vol. 12, issue 2, 197-223

Abstract: Despite their widespread use, there is little academic evidence on whether applicant selection instruments can improve teacher hiring. We examine the relationship between two screening instruments used by Spokane Public Schools to select classroom teachers and three teacher outcomes: value added, absences, and attrition. We observe all applicants to the district (not only those who are hired), allowing us to estimate sample selection-corrected models using random tally errors and variation in the level of competition across job postings as instruments. Ratings on the screening instruments significantly predict value added in math and teacher attrition, but not absences—an increase of one standard deviation in screening scores is associated with an increase of about 0.06 standard deviations of student math achievement, and a decrease in teacher attrition of 3 percentage points. Hence the use of selection instruments appears to be a key means of improving the quality of the teacher workforce.

Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/EDFP_a_00200 (application/pdf)
Access to PDF is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:tpr:edfpol:v:12:y:2017:i:2:p:197-223

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://mitpressjour ... rnal/?issn=1557-3060

Access Statistics for this article

Education Finance and Policy is currently edited by Stephanie Riegg Cellini and Randall Reback

More articles in Education Finance and Policy from MIT Press
Bibliographic data for series maintained by The MIT Press ().