Are Tenure Track Professors Better Teachers? / David N. Figlio, Morton O. Schapiro, Kevin B. Soter.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Figlio, David N.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Schapiro, Morton O.

Soter, Kevin B.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w19406.

NBER working paper series no. w19406

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2013.

Summary:

This study makes use of detailed student-level data from eight cohorts of first-year students at Northwestern University to investigate the relative effects of tenure track/tenured versus non-tenure line faculty on student learning. We focus on classes taken during a student's first term at Northwestern, and employ a unique identification strategy in which we control for both student-level fixed effects and next-class-taken fixed effects to measure the degree to which non-tenure line faculty contribute more or less to lasting student learning than do other faculty. We find consistent evidence that students learn relatively more from non-tenure line professors in their introductory courses. These differences are present across a wide variety of subject areas, and are particularly pronounced for Northwestern's average students and less-qualified students.

Notes:

Print version record

September 2013.