Can You Recognize an Effective Teacher When You Recruit One?

Jonah E. Rockoff (), Brian A. Jacob (), Thomas J. Kane () and Doug Staiger
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Jonah E. Rockoff: Graduate School of Business, Columbia University
Brian A. Jacob: Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, University of Michigan
Thomas J. Kane: Harvard Graduate School of Education

Education Finance and Policy, 2011, vol. 6, issue 1, 43-74

Abstract: Research on the relationship between teacher characteristics and teacher effectiveness has been underway for over a century, yet little progress has been made in linking teacher quality with factors observable at the time of hire. To extend this literature, we administered an in-depth survey to new math teachers in New York City and collected information on a number of nontraditional predictors of effectiveness, including teaching-specific content knowledge, cognitive ability, personality traits, feelings of self-efficacy, and scores on a commercially available teacher selection instrument. We find that only a few of these predictors have statistically significant relationships with student and teacher outcomes. However, the individual variables load onto two factors, which measure what one might describe as teachers' cognitive and noncognitive skills. We find that both factors have a moderately large and statistically significant relationship with student and teacher outcomes, particularly with student test scores. © 2011 Association for Education Finance and Policy

Keywords: teacher effectiveness; teacher quality; teacher recruiting; New York City schools (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I21 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011
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Working Paper: Can You Recognize an Effective Teacher When You Recruit One? (2008)
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