Teacher Credentials and Student Achievement in High School: A Cross-Subject Analysis with Student Fixed Effects

This report uses statewide end-of-course tests in North Carolina to examine the relationship between teacher credentials and student achievement at the high school level.The result? Teacher credentials and preparation affects student achievement in ways that are large enough to matter. In fact, students who tend to have the highest need also tend to have the least-prepared teachers, which contributes to the achievement gap.

In the words of this study: "The availability of test scores in multiple subjects for each student permits us to estimate a model with student fixed effects, which helps minimize any bias associated with the non-random distribution of teachers and students among classrooms within schools. We find compelling evidence that teacher credentials affect student achievement in systematic ways and that the magnitudes are large enough to be policy relevant. As a result, the uneven distribution of teacher credentials by race and socio-economic status of high school students--a pattern we also document--contributes to achievement gaps in high school." View the working paper PDF on the CALDER website.