What Kind of Teachers Are Schools Looking For? Evidence from a Randomized Field Experiment

Last registered on December 21, 2018

View Trial History

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title

What Kind of Teachers Are Schools Looking For? Evidence from a Randomized Field Experiment

RCT ID

AEARCTR-0003672

Initial registration date

December 19, 2018

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published

December 21, 2018, 10:58 PM EST

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Locations

Country

United States of America

Region

Primary Investigator

Name

Peter Hinrichs

Affiliation

Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland

Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

Additional Trial Information

Status

Completed

Start date

2012-06-01

End date

2012-08-31

Keywords

Education, Gender, Labor

Additional Keywords

JEL code(s)

I21, J45

Secondary IDs

Abstract

Teacher quality is a pressing public policy concern, yet little is known about the hiring process. This paper reports the results of an experiment in which public, private, and charter schools throughout the United States were sent resumes with randomly-selected characteristics from fictitious applicants for teaching positions. The pattern of callbacks suggests that an applicant's academic background has little impact on the likelihood of success at private and charter schools, although public schools respond more favorably to candidates from more selective colleges. Private schools demonstrate a slight preference for female candidates. All three sectors demonstrate a preference for in-state candidates.

External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation

Hinrichs, Peter. 2018. "What Kind of Teachers Are Schools Looking For? Evidence from a Randomized Field Experiment." AEA RCT Registry. December 21. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.3672-1.0

Former Citation

Hinrichs, Peter. 2018. "What Kind of Teachers Are Schools Looking For? Evidence from a Randomized Field Experiment." AEA RCT Registry. December 21. https://www.socialscienceregistry.org/trials/3672/history/39509

Sponsors & Partners

Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)

Intervention Start Date

2012-06-01

Intervention End Date

2012-08-31

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)

1) callbacks 2) interview requests

Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)

Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Described in Section III of the paper, which is available online as Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland Working Paper 14-36.

Experimental Design Details

Randomization Method

randomization done in office by a computer

Randomization Unit

schools

Was the treatment clustered?

Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters

3,000

Sample size: planned number of observations

6,000

Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms

There are several different sets of treatments. For high/medium/low GPA there are roughly 2,000 observations per treatment. For high/medium/low college selectivity there are roughly 2,000 observations per treatment. For male/female there are roughly 3,000 observations per treatment. For in-state/out-of-state there are roughly 4,500 in-state and 1,500 out-of-state.

Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)

Supporting Documents and Materials

IRB