Teacher sorting, teacher quality, and student composition

Efficiency and equity of European education and training policies

“…A fundamental problem for equity in this area is the endogeneity of the distribution of teachers, in that better teachers may tend to choose to teach in relatively welloff schools, so that schools in problematic neighbourhoods have problems in attracting highquality teachers (cf. Bonesrønning et al 2005).…”

The Role of Pecuniary and Non-Pecuniary Factors in Teacher Turnover and Mobility Decisions.

“…It is often claimed that teachers in the public sector exhibit high levels of turnover 1 , therefore most of the previous research on teacher labour markets has focused on the factors that determine the decision to leave the public school system (Murnane and Olsen 1989, Dolton 1990, Dolton and van der Klaauw 1995, Stinebrickner 2002, Bonesronning et al 2003, Hanushek et al 2004. However, variations in teacher quality across public schools, and the impact this has on teacher e¤ectiveness and the human capital acquisition of pupils, is also a major point of concern in a number of countries, such as the UK (Chevalier and Dolton 2004), the US (Hanushek et al 2004) and Australia.…”

“…Exceptions are Bonesronning et al (2003) and Falch and Strom (2004), who both treat the turnover and mobility decisions separately. As Hanushek et al (2004) argue, however, a proper understanding of how the teacher labour market operates requires a simultaneous analysis of teacher turnover and mobility decisions as they are part of the same decision making process.…”

“…These studies su¤er from the absence of adequate controls for other working conditions, which may be correlated with wages. Moreover, although the relative wage has been shown to have some e¤ect on teacher turnover, it has also been shown that both mobility within the public school system, and exits from that system, appear to be largely related to working conditions, or non-pecuniary factors (Bonesronning et al 2003, Hanushek et al 2004, Falch and Strom 2004. Speci…cally, there is evidence that teachers sort between schools and the better quali…ed teachers move to better schools, as de…ned by student and sta¤ composition and performance (Bonesronning et al 2003, Clotfelter et al 2004.…”

“…Moreover, although the relative wage has been shown to have some e¤ect on teacher turnover, it has also been shown that both mobility within the public school system, and exits from that system, appear to be largely related to working conditions, or non-pecuniary factors (Bonesronning et al 2003, Hanushek et al 2004, Falch and Strom 2004. Speci…cally, there is evidence that teachers sort between schools and the better quali…ed teachers move to better schools, as de…ned by student and sta¤ composition and performance (Bonesronning et al 2003, Clotfelter et al 2004. It is clearly important from a policy perspective to know if pecuniary or non-pecuniary factors are more important determinants of teacher turnover and mobility, since this information can help in the design of compensation and human resource management policies to mitigate the worst e¤ects of turnover and mobility.…”