Beyond the Test: New Estimates of Long-Term Teacher Effectiveness

Elizabeth Ulrich Cascio

Reform of elementary and secondary education in the United States today rests heavily on the notion that teachers leave a lasting mark on their students. But do teachers have persistent impacts? Existing research on this question has focused exclusively on the effects of teachers on student test scores several years later. While findings from this research suggest that the effects of teachers “fade out,” test performance measures knowledge imperfectly and may not at all reflect the “non-cognitive” skills – like motivation – that may be critical for well-being later in life. This project will help to fill this gap in our knowledge by estimating the effects of elementary school teachers on a truly long-term outcome – college attendance – using both experimental and observational data and tools already developed for estimating teacher effects on test scores. To the extent that there is such a finding, a supplemental analysis of great practical importance will illuminate which attributes observed today have the capacity to identify teachers with a lasting impact.

About Elizabeth Ulrich Cascio

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