@techreport{ai26-1405,
  title = {{Is Teacher Effectiveness Fully Portable? Evidence from the Random Assignment of Transfer Incentives}},
  author = {Matthew A. Kraft and John P. Papay and Jessalynn James and Manuel Monti-Nussbaum},
  institution = {Annenberg Institute at Brown University},
  type = {EdWorkingPaper},
  number = {26-1405},
  year = {2026},
  month = {February},
  doi = {10.26300/9zjf-j191},
  url = {https://edworkingpapers.com/ai26-1405},
  abstract = {We examine how performance changes when teachers transfer across very different school contexts. The Talent Transfer Initiative program created a rare natural experiment to study such transfers by randomly assigning low-achieving schools the ability to offer high-performing teachers at higher-achieving schools a \$20,000 transfer stipend. Forecast tests show that these high-performing teachers’ prior value added is only moderately predictive of their effectiveness in low-achieving schools. Using a difference-in-differences framework, we estimate that incentivized-transfer teachers’ value added dropped by 0.12 student standard deviations. This decline appears to be driven by lower match quality, negative indirect school effects, and the loss of student-specific human capital.},
}