Kirabo Jackson

Associate Professor of Human Development and Social Policy, Northwestern University

Topic: 
What Do Test Scores Miss? The Importance of Teacher Effects on Non-Test Score Outcomes
Date: 
Thursday, September 29, 2016 - 3:30pm to 5:00pm

Location: 

CERAS Learning Hall

Admission: 
Free and Open to the public

This paper extends the traditional test-score value-added model of teacher quality to allow for the possibility that teachers affect a variety of student outcomes through their effects on both students’ cognitive and noncognitive skill. Results show that teachers have effects on skills not measured by test-scores, but reflected in absences, suspensions, course grades, and on-time grade progression. Teacher effects on these non-test-score outcomes in 9th grade predict effects on high-school completion and predictors of college-going—above and beyond their effects on test scores. Relative to using only test-score measures of teacher quality, including both test-score and non-test-score measures more than doubles the predictable variability of teacher effects on these longer-run outcomes.