Heat-Humidity Exposure and Teacher Effectiveness

• In Event: New Evidence on Supporting Teacher Effectiveness

Abstract

A growing body of research examines how climate change, through rising temperatures and increasingly frequent temperature extremes, may affect educational outcomes, raising concerns about its broader implications for human capital development. Recent evidence shows that high temperatures reduce student academic outcomes in both low- and high-stakes settings and increase disruptive behavior and absenteeism. Teachers, as critical inputs in the human capital formation production function, have a significant impact on students’ cognitive and non-cognitive outcomes, as well as their long-term trajectories. However, how teachers are affected by temperature is largely underexplored, with only a few studies documenting increases in teacher absenteeism on hot days. Understanding how these environmental shocks impact teacher effectiveness is essential for assessing the consequences of climate change and potential mitigation strategies.

This paper explores how contemporaneous exposure to heat-humidity affects teacher effectiveness. Specifically, it investigates whether and how teacher behaviors are influenced by these environmental conditions. The analysis uses data from 2,300 elementary school teachers in Ecuador, whose instructional performance was assessed using the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS). Each teacher was observed only once, with approximately 460 teachers assessed per year between 2012 and 2016. Every year, students and teachers were randomly assigned to classrooms within schools. Detailed information on assessment timing and school locations allows us to combine performance measures with weather conditions on the exact observation dates, leveraging geographic and temporal variation in temperature to examine its relationship with teacher effectiveness. Heat exposure is captured using wet-bulb temperature, a measure that combines conventional ambient temperature with humidity.

To estimate the effects of heat-humidity exposure on teacher performance, we employ a two-ways fixed effects model with province and year fixed effects, comparing teachers within the same geographic area and calendar year. Temperature exposure is captured through a set of wet-bulb temperature bins indicating whether temperature during the assessment falls within specific ranges, a flexible approach commonly used in the climate literature. Our main results suggest that contemporaneous exposure to higher wet-bulb temperatures negatively affects teacher effectiveness. Relative to the reference category of 17-19 °C (62.6-66.2 °F), CLASS scores decline by 0.17 standard deviations when wet-bulb temperatures reach 19-21 °C (66.2-69.8 °F). These effects are concentrated in the socio-emotional support domain, while instructional support declines only at the highest temperatures. In contrast, classroom management scores improve under cooler conditions.

These findings have important implications for policies aimed at mitigating the effects of rising temperatures on human capital formation. While some studies suggest that infrastructure-based adaptations, such as air conditioning, may offset some of the negative effects on student performance, many schools, especially in developing countries, lack the resources to adopt such solutions. Beyond infrastructure, our findings highlight which student-teacher interactions are most vulnerable to heat stress, especially among those critical for child development. Understanding how these effects vary across classroom compositions can inform classroom assignment strategies and broader adaptation efforts, offering insights relevant for policy design in both developing and developed contexts.

Authors

• Dana Sofia Olguin, University of California, Santa Barbara
  Presenting Author

• Yyannú Cruz-Aguayo, Inter-American Development Bank
  Non-Presenting Co-Author

• Nicolas Fuertes Segura, University of Michigan
  Non-Presenting Co-Author