Teacher-to-classroom assignment and student achievement

TL;DR

This study examines how reassigning teachers within districts can improve student achievement without additional resources, using a semiparametric approach on data from the MET experiment.

Contribution

It provides the first empirical evidence on the effects of counterfactual teacher-to-classroom reassignments on student outcomes, highlighting resource-neutral policy options.

Findings

Reassignments can significantly improve student achievement.

Resource-neutral reallocation strategies are effective.

Within-district teacher reassignments impact achievement levels.

Abstract

We study the effects of counterfactual teacher-to-classroom assignments on average student achievement in elementary and middle schools in the US. We use the Measures of Effective Teaching (MET) experiment to semiparametrically identify the average reallocation effects (AREs) of such assignments. Our findings suggest that changes in within-district teacher assignments could have appreciable effects on student achievement. Unlike policies which require hiring additional teachers (e.g., class-size reduction measures), or those aimed at changing the stock of teachers (e.g., VAM-guided teacher tenure policies), alternative teacher-to-classroom assignments are resource neutral; they raise student achievement through a more efficient deployment of existing teachers.