Teacher Quality in Education Production

The education production literature posits that student achievement is a function of individual, family, peer, and school traits. Of the latter, teachers have been found to be by far the most important factor. However, measureable teacher characteristics, such as years of experience, certification, and advanced degrees held, appear to be of limited importance, leaving the puzzling problem of how to measure teacher quality for policy purposes. The distribution of teachers across students has emerged as a significant issue. This article provides an overview of recent education production literature related to teacher quality.