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Do Teachers' College Majors Affect Students' Academic Achievement in the Sciences? A Cross Subfields Analysis with Student-Teacher Fixed Effects

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  • INOUE Atsushi
  • TANAKA Ryuichi

Abstract

We examine whether and how teachers' major fields of study affect students' achievement, exploiting the within-student variation across subfields in natural science (i.e., physics, chemistry, biology, and earth science). Using middle-school students' data from the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study and controlling student-teacher fixed effects, we find that teachers with college majors in the natural sciences improved students' achievement of subfields in the natural sciences corresponding to their own subfields of college majors. Teaching practices explain about half of the effect of teachers' major fields, and the majority of the effects through teaching practices is accounted for by teachers' preparation for teaching science topics. The results are robust to potential endogenous matching between students and teachers.

Suggested Citation

  • INOUE Atsushi & TANAKA Ryuichi, 2022. "Do Teachers' College Majors Affect Students' Academic Achievement in the Sciences? A Cross Subfields Analysis with Student-Teacher Fixed Effects," Discussion papers 22004, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    • Handle: RePEc:eti:dpaper:22004
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    1. Suguru Otani & Tohya Sugano, 2024. "A Note on Identification of Match Fixed Effects as Interpretable Unobserved Match Affinity," Papers 2406.18913, arXiv.org, revised Aug 2024.

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    JEL classification:

    • H75 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - State and Local Government: Health, Education, and Welfare
    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity

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