How to Measure a Teacher: The Influence of Test and Nontest Value-Added on Long-Run Student Outcomes

This paper examines how different measures of teacher quality are related to students’ long-run educational trajectories. We estimate teachers’ test-based and nontest value-added (the latter based on contributions to student absences, suspensions, grade progression, and grades) and assess how these predict various student postsecondary outcomes. We find that both types of value-added have positive effects on student outcomes. Test-based teacher quality measures have more explanatory power for outcomes relevant for students at the top of the achievement distribution, such as attending a more selective college, while nontest measures have more explanatory power for whether students enroll in college at all.

This is an updated version of the paper originally titled "Teachers and Students’ Postsecondary Outcomes: Testing the Predictive Power of Test and Nontest Teacher Quality Measures" (WP 270-1022), released in October 2022.