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Estimating Teacher Quality: Comparing Objective and Subjective Measures

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Abstract

Teacher quality is widely considered to be an important contributor towards student academic success. However, there is no universally agreed upon method to measure teacher quality and, often, different measures of teacher quality reveal different information about teachers. This paper examines the academic achievement of Mexican sixth grade students utilizing data from surveys administered to students, teachers, and parents, to assess measures of teacher quality. Two different methods of measuring teacher quality, subjective student evaluations of teachers and objective value-added estimates of teachers’ contribution to students’ academic performance, are identified and compared. The subjective measure of teacher quality is estimated based on student responses to questions about their teachers’ behaviors. The objective measure estimates the change in students’ standardized test scores across two consecutive years that can be attributed to their teachers. Estimates of the relationship between subjective and objective measures of teacher quality indicate that the measures capture similar information, but that discrepancies between the measures also exist. The analysis provides support for comprehensive student and value-added evaluations of teachers.

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Acknowledgements

I thank Jere Behrman and Petra Todd for their continued support through the process of conducting this research and am very grateful for their guidance and constructive feedback.

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  1. University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA

    Mira G. Potter-Schwartz

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Correspondence to Mira G. Potter-Schwartz.

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Potter-Schwartz, M.G. Estimating Teacher Quality: Comparing Objective and Subjective Measures. Atl Econ J 50, 159–170 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11293-022-09759-0

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