1 Teacher Effectiveness in Africa: Longitudinal and Causal Estimates Julie Buhl-Wiggers, Jason T. Kerwin, Jeffrey A. Smith and Rebecca Thornton 1 March 4, 2019 [Draft: Please no not quote or cite without permission] Abstract This paper presents the first estimates of teacher effectiveness from Africa using longitudinal data from a school-based RCT in northern Uganda. Exploiting the random assignment of students to classrooms within schools, we estimate a lower bound on the variation in teacher effectiveness. A 1-SD increase in teacher effectiveness leads to at least a 0.13 SD improvement in student reading at the end of one year. Using detailed survey and classroom observation data, we find no detectable correlation between teacher effectiveness and teacher characteristics, but do find patterns associated with teaching behavior in the classroom. Using the RCT we find that providing teacher training and support increases the variation in teacher effectiveness, by probably making the most-effective teachers relatively better than the least-effective teachers. 1 Buhl-Wiggers: Department of Economics, Copenhagen Business School (jubu.eco@cbs.dk); Kerwin: Department of Applied Economics, University of Minnesota (jkerwin@umn.edu); Thornton: Department of Economics, University of Illinois (rebeccat@illinois.edu); Smith: Department of Economics, University of Wisconsin (econjeff@ssc.wisc.edu). Acknowledgements: We thank Laura Schechter and Chao Fu and seminar audiences at the University of Minnesota, CSAE, RISE, the University of Wisconsin, SOLE, Stellenbosch University, International Population Conference, NYU Steinhardt and Northeastern University for their comments and suggestions. The randomized evaluation of the Northern Uganda Literacy Project would not have been possible without the collaboration of Victoria Brown, Katherine Pollman, Deborah Amuka and other Mango Tree Educational Enterprises staff.