The Role of Teacher Gender on Students’ Academic Performance

Abstract: A prominent class of explanations for the gender gap in student performance focuses on the gender based interactions between students and teachers. This has led to a rise in discussions in education talks centred on controversial claims that teachers consistently privilege boys over girls. In this study, I examine whether assignment to a same sex teacher influences student performance. The empirical analysis conducted in this paper uses data from the Trends in Mathematics and Science Study (TIMMS) whereby each student takes standardised tests in each subject. This provides comparable student achievement data in both Mathematics and Science for nationally representative students. In addition, data on the gender of both students and teachers, as well as the income level of the different areas in which each school is situated can be obtained from the dataset. Most importantly each student is observed twice, once in each subject, which allows this study to implement an identification strategy that includes student fixed effects. I show that assignment to a same gender teacher improves student performances in low-income areas, but not in high-income areas.