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Teacher quality, test scores and non-cognitive skills: evidence from primary school teachers in the UK

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  • Sarah Flèche

Abstract

Schooling can produce both cognitive and non-cognitive skills, both of which are important determinants of adult outcomes. Using very rich data from a UK birth cohort study, I estimate teacher value added (VA) models for both pupils' test scores and non-cognitive skills. I show that teachers are equally important in the determination of pupils' test scores and non-cognitive skills. This finding extends the economics literature on teacher effects, which has primarily focused on pupils' test scores and may fail to capture teachers' overall effects. In addition, the large estimates reveal an interesting trade-off: teacher VA on pupils' test scores are weak predictors of teacher VA on non-cognitive skills, which suggests that teachers recourse to different techniques to improve pupils' cognitive and non-cognitive skills. Finally, I find that teachers' effects on pupils' non-cognitive skills have long-run impacts on adult outcomes such as higher education attendance, employment and earnings, conditional on their effects on test scores. This result indicates that long-run outcomes are improved by a combination of teachers increasing pupils' test scores and non-cognitive skills and has large policy implications.

Suggested Citation

  • Sarah Flèche, 2017. "Teacher quality, test scores and non-cognitive skills: evidence from primary school teachers in the UK," CEP Discussion Papers dp1472, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    • Handle: RePEc:cep:cepdps:dp1472
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

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    2. Breitkopf, Laura & Chowdhury, Shyamal K. & Priyam, Shambhavi & Schildberg-Hörisch, Hannah & Sutter, Matthias, 2020. "Do economic preferences of children predict behavior?," DICE Discussion Papers 342, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf Institute for Competition Economics (DICE).
    3. Andrew E. Clark & Sarah Flèche & Nick Powdthavee & George Ward, 2017. "The key determinants of happiness and misery," PSE-Ecole d'économie de Paris (Postprint) halshs-01513376, HAL.
    4. Lee Crawfurd & Caine Rolleston, 2020. "Long‐run effects of teachers in developing countries," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(4), pages 1279-1299, November.
    5. Briole, Simon & Le Forner, Hélène & Lepinteur, Anthony, 2020. "Children’s socio-emotional skills: Is there a quantity–quality trade-off?," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    6. Hélène Le Forner, 2021. "Formation of Children’s Cognitive and Socio-Emotional Skills: Is All Parental Time Equal?," AMSE Working Papers 2117, Aix-Marseille School of Economics, France.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    teacher quality; test scores; non-cognitive skills; long-run impacts; teaching practices; ALSPAC;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
    • J00 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - General - - - General

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