Important Paper on Value of Good Teacher May Be a Game Changer

If the news in this WSJ article  is true, I think it could be very important.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324324404579043311787197976.html?mod=WSJ_article_comments#articleTabs%3Dcomments

“If it is really true that  “…colleges of education will be required…to track graduates’ performance in K-12 classrooms and ensure they are contributing to student growth, as measured by test scores or other factors.”, then this is great news.

Why?

Raj Chetty (MacArthur Award Winner and Professor of Economics at Harvard) and his colleagues, John N. Friedman (Harvard) and Jonah E. Rockoff published “The Long-Term Impacts of Teachers: Teacher Value-Added And Student Outcomes in Adulthood.” Here is just one finding from their 94 page paper, based on data on over 2 million students.

“…From a purely financial perspective, high income parents should be willing to pay about $6,500/yr to get [a teacher in the 84th percentile vs. one at the 50th percentile]…”

Here is the link to an earlier comment that I made that I want to follow up on.  Important Paper on the Value of a Good Teacher (from a MacArthur Award Winner)