Project Details
Projekt
Teacher Effectiveness and its Determinants in Germany: A Deepened Analysis
Applicant
Professor Dr. Ludger Wößmann
Subject Area
Economic Policy, Applied Economics
Term
from 2014 to 2018
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 263948726
The state of knowledge in the economics of education on teacher effectiveness could briefly be summarized in two sentences: 1. Teachers play a critical role in the development of their students. 2. The specific teacher characteristics that account for their particular effects on their students' performance remain mostly unclear. Many studies, particularly conducted in the US, show that teacher quality variation is quite substantial and that only few teacher traits such as experience, subject knowledge or the same gender can moderately explain this variation. It is yet unclear whether these studies are externally valid for the German education system as it differs quite considerably in its school system as well as in its teacher training. Examples of its distinctive features are the structured teacher training programs, the early tracking and the limited competition of private and public schools. The National Educational Panel Study (NEPS) makes it possible for the first time to apply econometric methods for Germany that yield credible results about the variation of teacher quality and about the link between teacher traits and student performances.This project consists of three parts. First, we want to build upon the work of the previous funding period and use the data that will become available over the second funding period to strengthen the statistical power of our estimation results, thereby allowing for more robust conclusions on teacher effectiveness and its determinants in Germany. Furthermore, we want to extend our previous study twofold. In the second part, due to the specific emerging structure of the NEPS data, we can extend our previous estimation techniques that relied on two-year achievement gains to methods that will be based on one-year achievement gains. This is particularly interesting from a methodological point of view, as the standard of the literature is based on one-year gains. In addition, the comparison of these two estimation methods is critical for the assessment of our results of the first funding period and the potentially developed policy implications.In the third part, we want to exploit the considerably extended time dimension of the panel data by the end of the second funding period to improve the estimation methods. By then, the NEPS data will allow the cleansing of the variation in student performances of confounding factors. We want to divide this cleansed measure into a classroom and a teacher component, which will allow for a better identification of causal teacher effects on student achievement.In their entity, these three project parts in association with the results from the first funding period will provide critical evidence on the effects of German teachers and their traits on student achievement. Profound policy advice can be made on the basis of these results for current German education policy.
DFG Programme
Infrastructure Priority Programmes
