Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/289999 
Year of Publication: 
2022
Series/Report no.: 
IDB Working Paper Series No. IDB-WP-01405
Publisher: 
Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), Washington, DC
Abstract: 
It is unclear whether teachers with a degree in education are more effective than those who are not trained in an education-related field. To further examine this issue, we analyze the relationship between teachers' college major and student achievement by using unique data from Ecuador, which, for a period of time, allowed any graduate, regardless of their major, to apply for a teaching position in the country's centralized selection process. Results from all specifications indicate a non-significant relationship between degree type and student achievement, suggesting that teachers with and without an education degree are equally effective. We also found that teachers' content-related and pedagogical knowledge do not seem to mediate the relationship between having an education degree and student learning. Finally, we observe no heterogeneous effects across different student demographic and socioeconomic characteristics. Examining these claims empirically is crucial for ensuring that greater flexibility in teacher recruitment does not have negative effects on the quality of the education workforce.
Subjects: 
Teacher quality
teacher credentials
teacher degree requirements
student achievement
JEL: 
I20
I21
I28
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Creative Commons License: 
cc-by-nc-nd Logo
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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