Licensure and Worker Quality: A Comparison of Alternative Routes to Teaching
42 Pages Posted: 22 Jun 2013
Date Written: May 28, 2013
Abstract
In this paper I use a rich longitudinal data base from Florida to compare the characteristics of alternatively certified teachers with their traditionally prepared colleagues. I then analyze the relative effectiveness of teachers who enter the profession through different pathways by estimating “value-added” models of student achievement. In general, alternatively certified teachers have stronger pre-service qualifications than do traditionally prepared teachers, with the least restrictive alternative attracting the most qualified prospective teachers. Of the three alternative certification pathways studied, teachers who enter through the path requiring no coursework have substantially greater effects on student achievement than do either traditionally prepared teachers. In contrast, the alternative pathway that requires substantial occupation-specific human capital investment yields the least effective teachers. These results suggest that any benefits from pre-service training are overwhelmed by the adverse selection into programs that require non-transferable human capital investments.
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