Everyone's Doing it, But What Does Teacher Testing Tell Us About Teacher Effectiveness?

April 2006
Dan Goldhaber

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CRPE Working Paper #2006-1

This paper explores the relationship between teacher testing and teacher effectiveness using a unique dataset that links teachers to their individual students. The findings show a small positive relationship between teacher licensure tests and student achievement. But, they also suggest that states face significant tradeoffs when they require particular performance levels as a precondition to becoming a teacher: some teachers whom we might wish were not in the teacher workforce based on their contribution toward student achievement are eligible to teach based on their performance on these tests, while other individuals who would be effective teachers are ineligible.

The author gratefully acknowledges the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation for providing financial support for this project and the North Carolina Education Research Data Center and the Educational Testing Service for providing the confidential data. The contents of this publication are solely the responsibility of the Grantee.

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Blog Coverage: Eduwonk April 2006