Estimating effects of teacher characteristics on student achievement in reading and mathematics: evidence from Swedish census data

Figures & data

Table 1. Number of teachers and students, 2013–2016.

	Teachers	%	Students	%	Schools
2013	27759	22.9	94762	23.6	2039
2014	29690	24.5	97015	24.2	2039
2015	31169	25.7	102396	25.5	2039
2016	32509	26.8	106936	26.7	2039

Table 2. Means and SDs for student variables, 2013–2016.

		2013		2014		2015		2016
	N	M	SD	M	SD	M	SD	M	SD
GradeMath	2039	13.76	1.84	13.03	1.85	12.86	1.88	12.97	1.90
GradeSwe	2039	12.94	1.76	13.12	1.82	13.14	1.81	12.93	1.89
NtMath	2039	14.23	1.97	12.87	2.01	12.63	1.93	12.73	2.02
NtSwe	2039	12.93	1.65	13.27	1.69	13.26	1.64	12.79	1.79
ParED	2039	3.23	0.50	3.26	0.50	3.28	0.51	3.31	0.51
Immig	2039	0.18	0.22	0.18	0.22	0.19	0.23	0.20	0.23

Note: Reported at school level.

Table 3. Correlations among student variables.

	GradeMath	GradeSwe	NtMath	NtSwe	ParEd	Immig
GradeMath	1.00	0.74	0.83	0.65	0.54	−0.39
GradeSwe	0.74	1.00	0.58	0.85	0.54	−0.45
NtMath	0.83	0.58	1.00	0.61	0.49	−0.34
NtSwe	0.65	0.85	0.61	1.00	0.52	−0.42
ParEd	0.54	0.54	0.49	0.52	1.00	−0.46
Immig	−0.39	−0.45	−0.34	−0.42	−0.46	1.00

Notes: Reported at school level (N = 8156). All correlations are significant at the 0.01 level (two-tailed).

Table 4. Means and SDs for teacher characteristics, 2013–2016.

		2013		2014		2015		2016
Variable	N	M	SD	M	SD	M	SD	M	SD
TeachT	2039	0.85	0.15	0.85	0.14	0.84	0.14	0.81	0.16
SumLic	2039	37.72	13.39	37.28	13.16	36.00	12.75	33.83	12.38
EduLength	2039	3.06	0.28	3.07	0.27	3.05	0.29	3.01	0.31
MathLic	2039	0.57	0.23	0.56	0.23	0.55	0.22	0.52	0.22
SweLic	2039	0.60	0.21	0.60	0.21	0.59	0.21	0.56	0.21
TchExp	2039	13.08	4.18	12.90	4.01	12.67	3.94	12.23	3.76
Age	2039	44.89	4.34	44.78	4.27	44.69	4.23	44.55	4.25
Gender	2039	0.74	0.14	0.74	0.14	0.73	0.15	0.73	0.14

Note: Reported at school level.

Table 5. Correlations between teacher variables.

	EducT	SumLic	EduLength	MathLic	SweLic	TchExp	Age	Gender
EducT	1.00	0.65	0.41	0.58	0.61	0.44	0.26	0.17
SumLic	0.65	1.00	−0.10	0.89	0.87	0.47	0.31	0.23
EduLength	0.41	−0.10	1.00	−0.18	−0.13	0.02	−0.09	−0.11
MathLic	0.58	0.89	−0.18	1.00	0.88	0.34	0.21	0.28
SweLic	0.61	0.87	−0.13	0.88	1.00	0.33	0.19	0.31
TchExp	0.44	0.47	0.02	0.34	0.33	1.00	0.79	0.00
Age	0.26	0.31	−0.09	0.21	0.19	0.79	1.00	0.01
Gender	0.17	0.23	−0.11	0.28	0.31	0.00	0.01	1.00

Note: Reported at school level (N = 8156).

Table 6. Within-school variation over time in terms of standard deviations (N = 2039).

	Min	Max	Mean	SD
NtMath	0.07	8.35	1.46	0.75
NtSwe	0.10	4.59	1.07	0.58
GradeMath	0.11	6.41	1.20	0.61
GradeSwe	0.10	6.27	1.07	0.60
ParEd	0.01	0.93	0.22	0.12
Immig	0.00	0.30	0.06	0.04
SumLic	0.00	28.82	4.74	3.29
MathLic	0.00	0.47	0.08	0.05
SweLic	0.00	0.44	0.08	0.05
TeachT	0.00	0.45	0.08	0.05
EduLength	0.00	1.66	0.14	0.10
Gender	0.00	0.48	0.07	0.05
Age	0.07	13.46	2.04	1.27
TchExp	0.08	14.81	1.72	1.17

Figure 1. Within-school variation (SD) for parental education, 2013–2016.

Figure 2. Within-school variation (SD) for teaching licenses in mathematics, 2013–2016.

Table 7. FE estimates of achievement from models including student background variables.

	NtMath		GradeMath		NtSwe		GradeSwe
	Est	t	Est	t	Est	t	Est	t
ParEd	0.92	11.26	0.99	14.52	0.87	14.17	0.98	15.82
Immig	−2.25	−7.78	−2.00	−8.31	−2.07	−9.48	−2.60	−11.87
ParEd+	0.84	10.23	0.92	13.45	0.80	12.94	0.89	14.29
Immig	−1.80	−6.22	−1.52	−6.31	−1.64	−7.56	−2.13	−9.78

Notes: All estimates are significant at the 0.001 level. All results are reported at school level.

Table 8. Effects of teacher characteristics on student achievement.

	NtMath		GradeMath		NtSwe		GradeSwe
	Est	t	Est	t	Est	t	Est	t
TeachT	1.02	4.66	0.42	2.31	0.40	2.40	0.25	1.54
SumLic	0.03	8.05	0.01	4.70	0.01	3.75	0.01	3.10
EduLength	0.09	0.80	−0.16	−1.65	0.06	0.65	−0.07	−0.84
MathLic	1.07	5.10	0.60	3.42	0.49	3.11	0.42	2.62
SweLic	0.96	4.66	0.35	2.04	0.34	2.21	0.19	1.19
TchExp	0.06	5.78	0.03	4.26	0.02	2.56	0.02	2.46
Age	0.03	3.92	0.01	2.11	0.01	1.76	0.01	2.34
Gender	0.62	2.57	0.27	1.37	0.24	1.31	0.08	0.43

Notes: t > 1.96 p < 0.05; t > 2.58 p <0 .01; t > 3.31 p <0 .001. All results are reported at school level.

Table 9. Estimates of effects of combinations of teacher characteristics on student achievement.

		NtMath		GradeMath		NtSwe		GradeSwe
Model		Est	t	Est	t	Est	t	Est	t
1	TchExp	0.06	4.29	0.05	4.05	0.02	1.87	0.01	1.06
	Age	−0.01	−0.65	−0.02	−1.66	0.00	−0.25	0.01	0.74
2	TchExp	0.03	2.51	0.02	2.53	0.01	0.98	0.01	1.28
	SumLic	0.03	5.51	0.01	3.21	0.01	2.45	0.01	2.22
	TeachT	−0.19	−0.68	−0.25	−1.07	0.00	−0.01	−0.13	−0.63
3	MathLic	0.77	2.47	0.73	2.83	0.51	2.19	0.60	2.58
	SweLic	0.41	1.34	−0.18	−0.70	−0.03	−0.11	−0.25	−1.09

Notes: t > 1.96 p < 0.05; t > 2.58 p <0 .01; t > 3.31 p < 0.001. All results are reported at school level.