Simultaneous Estimation of Teacher Mobility and Reading Scores

Analyzes teacher mobility in San Diego schools, using a two-stage least squares approach. Argues that the average reading ability of students at a specific school depends on the degree of teacher movement from the school. More experienced teachers are able to move to the more attractive schools (where the high achievers go). Two consequences of this phenomenon are that reading ability is strongly and negatively related to the social class of students, and teacher movement is negatively related to reading ability. Thus the analysis suggests that teacher turnover is a serious problem.