Jacob, Brian A., and Lars Lefgren. 2004. "The Impact of Teacher Training on Student Achievement: Quasi-Experimental Evidence from School Reform Efforts in Chicago." Journal of Human Resources 39(1): 50-79.

While there is a substantial literature on the relationship between general teacher characteristics and student learning, school districts and states often rely on in-service teacher training as a part of school reform efforts. Recent school reform efforts in Chicago provide an opportunity to examine in-service training using a quasi-experimental research design. In this paper, we use a regression discontinuity strategy to estimate the effect of teacher training on the math and reading performance of elementary students. We find that marginal increases in in-service training have no statistically or academically significant effect on either reading or math achievement, suggesting that modest investments in staff development may not be sufficient to increase the achievement of elementary school children in high-poverty schools.

Brian Jacob is an assistant professor at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government. Lars Lefgren is an assistant professor of economics at Brigham Young University. The authors would like to thank the Consortium on Chicago School Research and the Chicago Public Schools for providing the data used in this study. They are grateful to Joshua Angrist, Mark Duggan, Michael Greenstone, Steven Levitt, Brigitte Madrian, and seminar participants at the University of Chicago and BYU for helpful suggestions. They claim responsibility for all remaining errors. Jacob can be contacted at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, and by email at brian_jacob@harvard.edu or phone (617) 384-7968. Lefgren can be contacted at the Department of Economics, Brigham Young University, 130 Faculty Office Building, Provo, UT 84602-2363, and by e-mail at l-lefgren@byu.edu.