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Teacher Quality Data Releases Have Unintended Consequences on Neighborhood and School Demographics
Abstract
Using New York City as an example, the author of this commentary argues that the public release of teacher quality data impacts neighborhood and school demographics.
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Research has shown that Title I’s “comparability” provision causes gaps in noncategorical per pupil teacher funding. Using a unique dataset that merges 2009-2010 New York City (NYC) Department of Education value-added scores, school finance data, and school demographic data, this study not only confirms that NYC Title I elementary schools received less noncategorical per pupil teacher funding than non-Title I elementary schools, but these schools also had lower quality teachers. This paper provides the first evidence of a negative relationship between noncategorical per pupil teacher funding and the percentage of below average teachers even when controlling for certain school demographics. If Title I elementary public schools in New York City have lower quality teachers, then the students that are served by these schools are not receiving the same quality of education as their peers. Changing the comparability provision in Title I funding would result in more equitable funding.
This paper investigates whether the housing market responds to the information incorporated in state-administered school grades. We study whether school grades affect families' residential locations and house prices. Using detailed data on repeated sales of individual residential properties in the state of Florida, we find evidence that there is an independent effect of these grades on house prices and residential location, above and beyond the estimated effects of test scores and the other components of the school grades. Because these grades have a large stochastic component, however, we find that over time the estimated effects of the grades has diminished.
This paper examines the relationship between the February 2012 New York City teacher quality data release, the racial and ethnic composition of elementary and middle public schools and their neighborhoods, and housing prices. A unique dataset that links teacher quality to school characteristics, housing prices and characteristics, and Census data is used to estimate a difference-in-difference model to estimate the impact of the teacher quality release on housing prices. These results are then used to estimate the impact of the data release on residential and school demographics. The results in this study provide the first evidence of the effects of teacher quality measures on the housing market in New York City and the demographic shifts in residential and school mobility patterns as a result. The data suggests that the housing market responds significantly to the new information that was provided by the release of the teacher quality information, even when taking into consideration the school grades and other variables that may influence teacher quality measures. The magnitude of how much housing prices increase is greatly impacted by certain neighborhood demographics and the results show that Hispanic neighborhoods with a high proportion of free and reduced price lunch students are among the neighborhoods that had the highest increase in housing prices due to the teacher quality release. Not only that, but the areas that had the highest increase in housing prices due to the teacher quality release have experienced increases in the proportion of white students and the neighborhoods are becoming more racially diverse.
This paper develops a framework for estimating household preferences for school and neighborhood attributes in the presence of sorting. It embeds a boundary discontinuity design in a heterogeneous residential choice model, addressing the endogeneity of school and neighborhood characteristics. The model is estimated using restricted-access Census data from a large metropolitan area, yielding a number of new results. First, households are willing to pay less than 1 percent more in house prices—substantially lower than previous estimates—when the average performance of the local school increases by 5 percent. Second, much of the apparent willingness to pay for more educated and wealthier neighbors is explained by the correlation of these sociodemographic measures with unobserved neighborhood quality. Third, neighborhood race is not capitalized directly into housing prices; instead, the negative correlation of neighborhood percent black and housing prices is due entirely to the fact that blacks live in unobservably lower-quality neighborhoods. Finally, there is considerable heterogeneity in preferences for schools and neighbors, with households preferring to self-segregate on the basis of both race and education.
Tiebout sorting, social multipliers and the demand for school quality (Working Paper No. 11087)
- P Bayer
- F Ferreira
- R Mcmillian
Bayer, P., Ferreira, F., & McMillian, R. (2005). Tiebout sorting, social multipliers and the demand for school
quality (Working Paper No. 11087). Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research.