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An essential answer: more good teachers. Or, to put it another way, fewer bad teachers. The obvious policy solution is more pay for good teachers, more dismissals for weak teachers. One of the paradoxes of the school reform debate is that teachers unions have resisted a focus on teacher quality; instead, they emphasize that the home is the foremost influence and that teachers can only do so much. Thats all true, and (as Ive often written) we need an array of other antipoverty measures as well, especially early childhood programs. But the evidence is now overwhelming that even in a grim high-poverty school, some teachers have far more impact on their students than those in the classroom next door. Three consecutive years of data from student tests the value added between student scores at the beginning and end of each year reveal a great deal about whether a teacher is working out, the researchers found. This study, by Raj Chetty and John N. Friedman of Harvard University and Jonah E. Rockoff of Columbia University, was influential because it involved a huge database of one million students followed from fourth grade to adulthood. The blog of the Albert Shanker Institute, endowed by the American Federation of Teachers, praised the study as one of the most dense, important and interesting analyses on this topic in a very long time although it cautioned against policy conclusions (of the kind that Im reaching). What shone through the study was the variation among teachers. Great teachers not only raised test scores significantly an effect that mostly faded within a few years but also left their students with better life outcomes. A great teacher (defined as one better than 84 percent of peers) for a single year between fourth and eighth grades resulted in students earning almost 1 percent more at age 28. Suppose that the bottom 5 percent of teachers could be replaced by teachers of average quality. The three economists found that each student in the classroom would have extra cumulative lifetime earnings of more than $52,000. Thats more than $1.4 million in gains for the classroom. Some Republicans worry that a federal role in education smacks of socialism. On the contrary, schools represent a tough-minded business investment in our economic future. And, increasingly, were getting solid evidence of what reforms may help: teacher evaluations based on student performance, higher pay and prestige for good teachers, dismissals for weak teachers. That, and not most of the fireworks that passes for politics these days, is the debate we should be having on a national stage.
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