SMU SOE Seminar (Dec 17, 2019): Teacher Effectiveness in Africa: Longitudinal and Causal Estimates

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ABSTRACT This paper presents the first estimates of teacher effectiveness from Africa, using longitudinal data from a school-based RCT in northern Uganda. Exploiting the random assignment of students to classrooms within schools, we estimate a lower bound on the variation in teacher effectiveness. A 1-SD increase in teacher effectiveness leads to at least a 0.18 SD improvement in local language reading, 0.33 in English reading and 0.24 in Math, at the end of one year. Teacher effectiveness is only weakly correlated with observable teacher characteristics. Using the RCT, we find that providing high-impact teacher training and support increases the variation in teacher effectiveness in the local language and in English, most likely by improving teaching among the most-effective teachers. In contrast, the intervention slightly reduces the variation in teacher effectiveness for Math. Click here to view the CV.
		PRESENTER Jeffrey Smith University of Wisconsin–Madison
		RESEARCH FIELDS Labor Economics Economics of Education Applied Economics Public Economics
		DATE: 17 December 2019 (Tuesday)
		TIME: 4pm - 5.30pm
		VENUE: Meeting Room 5.1, Level 5 School of Economics Singapore Management University 90 Stamford Road Singapore 178903

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