The Role of Families in Student Sorting to Teachers

This study leverages sibling identifiers merged to administrative school records to analyze the assignment of elementary students to teachers. We document significant sorting of students to their older sibling's teachers, and this effect is stronger for relatively advantaged students. By analyz...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Journal of human resources 2020-01, Vol.55 (2), p.470-503
Main Authors: Qureshi, Javaeria A, Ost, Ben
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Elementary school students
Elementary school teachers
Parents & parenting
School records
Siblings
Students
Teachers
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Summary:This study leverages sibling identifiers merged to administrative school records to analyze the assignment of elementary students to teachers. We document significant sorting of students to their older sibling's teachers, and this effect is stronger for relatively advantaged students. By analyzing the circumstances in which students are disproportionately assigned to their older sibling's teacher, we provide indirect evidence regarding parental preferences for various teacher characteristics. We find stronger sorting to the older sibling's teacher when that teacher is relatively experienced or has higher value-added. The sorting towards higher value-added teachers is significantly stronger for relatively advantaged students.
ISSN:0022-166X
1548-8004
DOI:10.3368/jhr.55.3.0717-8953R2