The Persistence of Teacher Effects in Elementary Grades Spyros Konstantopoulos Michigan State University Vicki Chung Long Wing Education Consulting Results from experimental and nonexperimental studies have shown that teachers differ in their effectiveness. In addition, evidence from nonexperi- mental studies has indicated that teacher effects last for 3 years in elemen- tary grades. This study uses data from Project STAR and its follow-up study, the Lasting Benefits Study, to examine whether teacher effects from kinder- garten to fifth grade can simultaneously affect sixth grade achievement. Teacher effects are defined as teacher-specific residuals adjusted for student background and treatment effects. Findings indicate that the teacher effects persist through sixth grade in mathematics, reading, and science. The find- ings also suggest that teacher effects are important and that their cumulative effects on student achievement are considerable. KEYWORDS: teacher effects, student achievement, elementary grades, HLM P revious research over the past 30 years has suggested that the effects teachers have on students’ academic achievement differ considerably. Folk knowledge has also suggested that the differences between the effects of teachers on individual students can be remarkable. It is common to attri- bute academic success to particular teachers we have had and speak of them as ‘‘great teachers.’’ A popular belief in the U.S. education system is that highly effective teachers can make a difference in promoting student SPYROS KONSTANTOPOULOS is an associate professor of measurement and quantitative methods, in the Department of Counseling, Educational Psychology, and Special Education, at the College of Education, Michigan State University, 450 Erickson Hall, East Lansing, MI 48824; e-mail: spyros@msu.edu. His research interests include power analysis in experimental designs with nested structures, class size effects, teacher and school effects, and the social distribution of academic achievement. VICKI CHUNG, PhD, works as a quantitative analyst for Long Wing Education Consulting; e-mail: vickichung2010@u.northwestern.edu. Her research interests include student motivation, teacher quality, and school accountability/standards. American Educational Research Journal April 2011, Vol. 48, No. 2, pp. 361–386 DOI: 10.3102/0002831210382888 Ó 2011 AERA. http://aerj.aera.net