Student Height
This paper compares estimates of teacher value-added in mathematics and ELA with parallel estimates on a biomarker that teachers should not impact: student height.
Using administrative data from New York City, we find estimated teacher “effects” on height are comparable in magnitude to actual teacher effects on math and ELA achievement, 0.22: compared to 0.29 and 0.26 respectively. On its face, such results raise concerns about the validity of these models.