Teacher applicant hiring and teacher performance: Evidence from DC public schools

Authors
Brian A. Jacob,
Jonah E. Rockoff,
Eric S. Taylor,
Benjamin Lindy,
Rachel Rosen
Year of publication
2018
Publication
Journal of Public Economics
Volume/Issue
116
Pages
81–97
Selecting more productive employees among a pool of job applicants can be a cost-effective means of improving organizational performance and may be particularly important in the public sector. We study the relationship among applicant characteristics, hiring outcomes, and job performance for teachers in the Washington DC Public Schools. Applicants' academic background (e.g., undergraduate GPA) is essentially uncorrelated with hiring. Screening measures (written assessments, interviews, and sample lessons) help applicants get jobs by placing them on a list of recommended candidates, but they are only weakly associated with the likelihood of being hired conditional on making the list. Yet both academic background and screening measures strongly predict teacher job performance, suggesting considerable scope for improving schools via the selection process.

Suggested Citation

1. Jacob, B. A., Rockoff, J. E., Taylor, E. S., Lindy, B., & Rosen, R. (2018). Teacher applicant hiring and teacher performance: Evidence from DC public schools. Journal of Public Economics, 116, 81–97