Teachers

The literature shows that teachers differ greatly in how much they teach their students. But little is known about which teacher attributes make for a good teacher. In one paper, we exploit specific Peruvian data to estimate the effect of teacher subject knowledge on student achievement. As we can observe both student and teacher achievement in two subjects (math and reading) in the data, our analysis can circumvent bias from any student and teacher characteristics that do not vary between the two subjects. The results show that teacher subject knowledge indeed has a noteworthy effect on student achievement particularly in math.

In an international comparison, higher teacher salaries and teacher performance pay are associated with better student achievement.

Research papers:

The Impact of Teacher Subject Knowledge on Student Achievement: Evidence from Within-Teacher Within-Student Variation (with J. Metzler). Journal of Development Economics 99 (2): 486-496, 2012

Cross-Country Evidence on Teacher Performance Pay. Economics of Education Review 30 (3): 404-418, 2011

Non-technical contributions:

Merit Pay International. Education Next 11 (2): 72-77, 2011

Overview of the Symposium on Performance Pay for Teachers (with E.A. Hanushek). Economics of Education Review 30 (3): 391-393, 2011

Ludger Woessmann Recommends “Measuring the Impacts of Teachers II: Teacher Value-Added and Student Outcomes in Adulthood” by Raj Chetty, John N. Friedman, and Jonah E. Rockoff. In: B. S. Frey, C. A. Schaltegger (eds.), 21st Century Economics: Economic Ideas You Should Read and Remember, Springer Nature, 157-159, 2019

Material available only in German

Newspaper article:

Boni für die Besten. Die Zeit, 8.4.2009, p. 66