Do teacher qualifications matter? A longitudinal study investigating the cumulative effect of NCLB teacher qualifications on the achievement of elementary school children

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between having a \u27highly qualified\u27 teacher (as defined by No Child Left Behind) in each grade over a multi-year period and the cognitive achievement of elementary school children. When analyses are limited to a single year, previous findings suggest that there is no systematic relationship between the teacher qualifications required by No Child Left Behind and the cognitive achievement of elementary school children. I hypothesize that gains in student achievement are related to the cumulative exposure of a set of highly qualified teachers over a period of time. The Early Childhood Longitudinal Study of Kindergartners (ECLS-K) provides the data to test this hypothesis. I compute a cumulative teacher quality index (CTQI) as the number of highly qualified teachers a student has had during the study. Several important descriptive results emerge from the study. The percentage of students who are exposed to a highly qualified teacher is about equal in each grade. However, the percentage of students who had highly qualified teachers for all grades in the study is substantially less than the percentage of students who had a highly qualified teacher at any given grade level. Further, this percentage is lower in high-poverty and high-minority schools. In a hierarchical linear (HLM) model, the effect of the CTQI for possession of an elementary certificate is significantly related to both reading and mathematics achievement, with a higher magnitude in reading. In mathematics, this effect is stronger for disadvantaged students. The CTQI for holding an advanced degree (beyond a bachelor\u27s degree) is negatively related to reading and mathematics achievement. The CTQI for holding the highest state teaching certificate is positively related to both reading and mathematics achievement but this relationship is not consistently significant. The negative cumulative effect of an advanced degree on student achievement adds to the literature and merits greater attention. The finding of a positive and significant effect for the CTQI for holding an elementary education certificate suggests that pre-service teacher preparation programs should be emphasized for elementary school teachers, especially those programs leading to a certificate in elementary education