Goldhaber, Dan. 2007. “Everyone’s Doing It, But What Does Teacher Testing Tell Us About Teacher Effectiveness?” Journal of Human Resources 42(4): 765–794.
This paper explores the relationship between teacher testing and teacher effectiveness using a unique data set that links teachers to their individual students. The findings show a positive relationship between some teacher licensure tests and student achievement. But, they also suggest that states face significant tradeoffs when they require particular performance levels as a precondition to becoming a teacher. Some teachers whom we might wish were not in the teacher work force based on their contribution toward student achievement are eligible to teach based on their performance on the tests; other individuals who would be effective teachers are ineligible. For example, the results suggest that upping the elementary teacher licensure test standard from the one currently used in North Carolina to the higher standard used in Connecticut would lead to the exclusion of less than 0.5 percent of the teacher work force estimated to be very ineffective teachers, but would also result in the exclusion of 7 percent of the teacher work force estimated to be effective teachers.
Dan Goldhaber is a research professor of public affairs at the University of Washington and an affiliated scholar at the Urban Institute. The research presented here is based primarily on confidential data from the North Carolina Education Research Center (NCERDC) at Duke University, directed by Elizabeth Glennie and supported by the Spencer Foundation. The author wishes to acknowledge the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction for its role in collecting this information. The author gratefully acknowledges the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, and an anonymous foundation for providing financial support for this project. The author also wishes to thank Jacob Vigdor, Michael Podgursky, Jim Wyckoff, and Ronald Ehrenberg for comments on an earlier version of this article; Carol Wallace and Michael DeArmond for editorial assistance; and Daniel Player and Michael Hansen for excellent research assistance. The views expressed in this paper do not necessarily reflect those of the University of Washington, the Urban Institute, or the study’s sponsors. Responsibility for any and all errors rests solely with the author. The data for this paper originated with Duke University. Information about how researchers can acquire the data is posted on the NCERDC website at http://www.childandfamilypolicy.duke.edu/ep/nceddatacenter/procedures.html. The author will be happy to assist other scholars with this process. Dan Goldhaber, University of Washington, CRPE, 2101 N. 34th Street, Suite 195, Seattle 98103, dgoldhab@u.washington.edu, Phone: 206-685-2214; Fax: 206-221-7402.