  We study the effects of counterfactual teacher-to-classroom assignments on
average student achievement in elementary and middle schools in the US. We use
the Measures of Effective Teaching (MET) experiment to semiparametrically
identify the average reallocation effects (AREs) of such assignments. Our
findings suggest that changes in within-district teacher assignments could have
appreciable effects on student achievement. Unlike policies which require
hiring additional teachers (e.g., class-size reduction measures), or those
aimed at changing the stock of teachers (e.g., VAM-guided teacher tenure
policies), alternative teacher-to-classroom assignments are resource neutral;
they raise student achievement through a more efficient deployment of existing
teachers.
