Teachers’ salaries and human capital, and their effects on academic performance: an institution-level analysis of Los Angeles County high schools

This study re-examines the relationships between school performance (at the high school level) on standardized exams and both teacher pay/salaries and teacher quality, where the latter is measured by teachers’ human capital. To undertake this analysis, we employ Academic Performance Index (API) data from high schools in Los Angeles County (CA) to measure school performance. Heteroscedasticity-consistent OLS results indicate that both teacher pay and teacher quality exercise positive impacts upon school performance. Indeed, an increase from lowest to highest (i.e., over the entire range) of teacher pay and teacher quality, ceteris paribus, generates high school performance increases of approximately three and six percentage points, respectively. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media New York 2015