“Is Testing Students the Answer to America’s Education Woes?” Think No? Read This

I made a previous comment on this subject.

“…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]…Impacts on earnings are…similar in percentage terms for students from low and high income families…great teachers [as measured only by the ‘average test score gain of his or her students’] create great value…”.

(From “The Long-Term Impacts of Teachers: Teacher Value-Added And Student Outcomes in Adulthood”, a landmark paper, by Harvard professors Raj Chetty, and his colleagues, John N. Friedman (Harvard) and Jonah E. Rockoff.)

See my other comments to see why differences among teachers can be so great. It depends, to a large degree, on where they went to college; and, that is usually determined by family wealth – or lack of. There is a vicious circle at work here – especially for the poor.