4/5 One reason why: teacher absences. Older teachers are nearly twice as likely to miss work during very hot months. At the same time, older teachers usually raise achievement because of experience, but that advantage evaporates as extreme heat increases.
Hi! I’m Mary and I’m on the #EconJobMarket this year.
Extreme heat doesn’t just affect students, it affects the people teaching them.
JMP 🧵:
1/5 We know that extreme heat affects student learning, but it’s not clear how much of this comes from impacts on teachers. Do older (& more experienced) teachers help their students weather heat shocks? Or, does increased age mean these teachers’ productivity suffers more in extreme heat?
2/5 Teachers of different ages face similar students, classrooms, and heat, but respond differently. That allows me to isolate the teacher mechanism.
3/5 Using matched student–teacher data from North Carolina plus high-resolution weather data, I find each additional extreme heat day lowers test scores in classrooms taught by the teachers aged 54 and over. For younger teachers, I do not find an effect.
Mary Quiroga
5/5 Bottom line: extreme heat is undermining teacher productivity and reshaping learning in ways we’ve totally missed. As heat waves become more common, schools with older workforces or weak cooling systems will be especially vulnerable. Climate change is already affecting American teachers.
