What Kind of Teachers are Schools Looking for? Evidence from a Randomized Field Experiment

40 Pages Posted: 12 Dec 2014

See all articles by Peter Hinrichs

Peter Hinrichs

Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland

Date Written: December 11, 2014

Abstract

Teacher quality is a pressing public policy concern, yet there is little evidence on what types of teachers schools actually prefer to hire. This paper reports the results of an experiment that involved sending schools fictitious resumes with randomly-chosen characteristics in an attempt to determine what characteristics schools value when hiring new teachers. The results of the study suggest that an applicant’s academic background has little impact on the likelihood of success at private and charter schools, although public schools respond more favorably to candidates from more selective colleges. Additionally, private schools demonstrate a slight preference for female candidates, and all three sectors demonstrate a preference for in-state candidates.

Keywords: resume audit studies, teacher labor markets

JEL Classification: I21, J45

Suggested Citation

Hinrichs, Peter, What Kind of Teachers are Schools Looking for? Evidence from a Randomized Field Experiment (December 11, 2014). FRB of Cleveland Working Paper No. 14-36, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2536990 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2536990

Peter Hinrichs (Contact Author)

Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland ( email )

East 6th & Superior
Cleveland, OH 44101-1387
United States

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
137
Abstract Views
1,111
Rank
377,436
PlumX Metrics