The Effect of Teacher Gender on Student Achievement in Primary School

Abstract

Using data from a randomized experiment, we find that having a fe- male teacher lowers the math test scores of female primary school students in disadvantaged neighborhoods. Moreover, we do not find any effect of having a female teacher on male students’ test scores ðmath or readingÞ or female students’ reading test scores, which seems to rule out explanations pertaining to the unobserved quality differ- ences between male and female teachers. Finally, this negative effect seems to persist only for female students who were assigned to a female teacher with a limited math background.

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