The Distribution of Teacher Quality in Relation to the Socioeconomic Status of Students: An Analysis

Teachers prefer to work for schools with high academic achievement and dislike working for schools with students of a lower socioeconomic status. However, no previous studies have investigated the consequences of teacher preferences for the allocation of teacher quality over schools that differ in the shares of students with a lower socioeconomic status. This thesis investigates whether differences in the distribution of teacher quality is present and discuss the findings in relation to the equal opportunities for children of a lower socioeconomic status. It uses an extensive administrative dataset on teachers, students and teacher evaluations provided by Education Executive Agency of the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science (DUO) and the Dutch Education Inspectorate. It furthermore tries to examine if central admission policies in Amsterdam and Nijmegen have led to a different distribution of teacher quality when compared to the 8 largest cities in the Netherlands. Evidence is found that students of a lower socioeconomic status are confronted with more novice teachers and teachers that score lower on their differentiation skills. Evidence is found that teachers at schools with students of a lower socioeconomic status are on average more likely to be in the beginning of their careers and take more sick days than their counterparts. Mixed evidence is found with regard to the share of master degrees and the mastering of teaching skills. While no evidence is found for a different distribution in relation to basic didactical skills. The analysis on Amsterdam and Nijmegen resulted in the conclusion that the admission policies did not lead to a different distribution in teacher quality. The main reason for these results is that the admission policy in Nijmegen did not yet induce the intended changes in the student composition of the schools and the policy in Amsterdam did not have enough time to have an effect on the student composition of schools.