Publication:
The Lost Human Capital: Teacher Knowledge and Student Achievement in Africa

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dc.contributor.authorBold, Tessa
dc.contributor.authorFilmer, Deon
dc.contributor.authorMolina, Ezequiel
dc.contributor.authorSvensson, Jakob
dc.date.accessioned2019-05-10T15:24:12Z
dc.date.available2019-05-10T15:24:12Z
dc.date.issued2019-05
dc.description.abstractIn many low-income countries, teachers do not master the subject they are teaching, and children learn little while attending school. Using unique data from nationally representative surveys of schools in seven Sub-Saharan African countries, this paper proposes a methodology to assess the effect of teacher subject content knowledge on student learning when panel data on students are not available. The paper shows that data on test scores of the student's current and the previous year's teachers, and knowledge of the correlation structure of teacher knowledge across time and grades, allow estimating two structural parameters of interest: the contemporaneous effect of teacher content knowledge, and the extent of fade out of teacher impacts in earlier grades. The paper uses these structural estimates to understand the magnitude of teacher effects and simulate the impacts of various policy reforms. Shortfalls in teachers' content knowledge account for 30 percent of the shortfall in learning relative to the curriculum, and about 20 percent of the cross-country difference in learning in the sample. Assigning more students to better teachers would potentially lead to substantial cost-savings, even if there are negative class-size effects. Ensuring that all incoming teachers have the officially mandated effective years of education, along with increasing the time spent on teaching to the officially mandated schedule, could almost double student learning within the next 30 years.en
dc.identifierhttp://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/149531557254443590/The-Lost-Human-Capital-Teacher-Knowledge-and-Student-Achievement-in-Africa
dc.identifier.doi10.1596/1813-9450-8849
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10986/31673
dc.languageEnglish
dc.publisherWorld Bank, Washington, DC
dc.relation.ispartofseriesPolicy Research Working Paper;No. 8849
dc.rightsCC BY 3.0 IGO
dc.rights.holderWorld Bank
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo
dc.subjectTEACHER TRAINING
dc.subjectSTUDENT ACHIEVEMENT
dc.subjectHUMAN CAPITAL
dc.subjectEDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT
dc.subjectTEACHER KNOWLEDGE
dc.subjectTEACHER PERFORMANCE
dc.subjectEDUCATION POLICY AND PLANNING
dc.subjectPUBLIC SERVICE DELIVERY
dc.subjectEDUCATION
dc.titleThe Lost Human Capitalen
dc.title.subtitleTeacher Knowledge and Student Achievement in Africaen
dc.typeWorking Paperen
dc.typeDocument de travailfr
dc.typeDocumento de trabajoes
dspace.entity.typePublication
okr.crossref.titleThe Lost Human Capital: Teacher Knowledge and Student Achievement in Africa
okr.date.disclosure2019-05-07
okr.doctypePublications & Research
okr.doctypePublications & Research::Policy Research Working Paper
okr.docurlhttp://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/149531557254443590/The-Lost-Human-Capital-Teacher-Knowledge-and-Student-Achievement-in-Africa
okr.guid149531557254443590
okr.identifier.doi10.1596/1813-9450-8849
okr.identifier.externaldocumentum090224b086c58d65_1_0
okr.identifier.internaldocumentum31049894
okr.identifier.reportWPS8849
okr.importedtrueen
okr.language.supporteden
okr.pdfurlhttp://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/149531557254443590/pdf/The-Lost-Human-Capital-Teacher-Knowledge-and-Student-Achievement-in-Africa.pdfen
okr.region.administrativeAfrica
okr.region.countryKenya
okr.region.countryMozambique
okr.region.countryNigeria
okr.region.countrySenegal
okr.region.countryTanzania
okr.region.countryTogo
okr.region.countryUganda
okr.region.geographicalSub-Saharan Africa
okr.statistics.combined2010
okr.statistics.dr149531557254443590
okr.statistics.drstats1399
okr.topicEducation::Educational Policy and Planning
okr.topicEducation::Effective Schools and Teachers
okr.unitDevelopment Research Group, Development Economics and the Education Global Practice
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relation.isAuthorOfPublication.latestForDiscovery31f46949-2ccf-502a-bdbd-784362f63ce8
relation.isSeriesOfPublication26e071dc-b0bf-409c-b982-df2970295c87
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