Do school characteristics and teacher quality affect student performance? Evidence from a Natural Experiment in Beijing Middle Schools

Constructing a rigorous identification strategy based on a unique educational reform involving preference-based random assignment of students to different middle schools in Beijing, this paper examines how school and teacher characteristics affect student academic performance. Results show that school matters for test scores at the High School Entrance Examination. Teachers’ comprehensive quality rank significantly improves student academic performance. However, controlling for teacher rank, informal degree training is not effective and teachers’ years of teaching lower the overall test score, expectedly due to job burnout. Students with weaker academic and socioeconomic backgrounds are more sensitive to the quality of their teachers.