American Economic Review Vol. 104 No. 9 2014

Measuring the Impacts of Teachers II: Teacher Value-Added and Student Outcomes in Adulthood

Raj Chetty¹; John N. Friedman²; Jonah E. Rockoff³

¹ Harvard University, Littauer Center 226, Cambridge, MA 02138 (e-mail: ) · ² Harvard University, Taubman Center 356, Cambridge, MA 02138 (e-mail: ) · ³ Columbia University, Uris 603, New York, NY 10027 (e-mail: )

Abstract

Are teachers' impacts on students' test scores (value-added) a good measure of their quality? This question has sparked debate partly because of a lack of evidence on whether high value-added (VA) teachers improve students' long-term outcomes. Using school district and tax records for more than one million children, we find that students assigned to high-VA teachers are more likely to attend college, earn higher salaries, and are less likely to have children as teenagers. Replacing a teacher whose VA is in the bottom 5 percent with an average teacher would increase the present value of students' lifetime income by approximately $250,000 per classroom.

DOI

10.1257/aer.104.9.2633

Volume

104

Issue

9

Pages

2633-2679

Language

en

Sources

openalex crossref

Cite

APA 7 MLA 9 Chicago (author–date) Harvard Elsevier Harvard (JFE, JBF…) The Accounting Review Academy of Management American Marketing Association INFORMS (Management Science) Copy citation Copied ✓