What’s a good teacher worth? The question is often answered sentimentally, but a recent study offers hard numbers.
Good teachers improve students’ cognitive abilities, as measured on tests, and cognitive abilities correlate with earnings later in life. Using conservative assumptions, the study found that a teacher at the 84th percentile of performance raised the future annual earnings of a class of 20 children by $240,000 (in current dollars). By using more generous assumptions about a teacher’s effect on students, that figure can go as high as $1 million.
Good teachers improve students’ cognitive abilities, as measured on tests, and cognitive abilities correlate with earnings later in life.
Unfortunately, it works both ways: Teachers at the 16th percentile of performance decrease future earnings of their students by the same amount, the study found.
Looking at the situation another way, the study concluded that removing the weakest 5% to 8% of teachers and replacing them with average ones would, over the long term, add $100 trillion to the U.S. economy.
from: By Christopher Shea, Wall Street Journal, and “The Economic Value of Higher Teacher Quality,” Eric A. Hanushek, National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper (December)
Did a particular teacher significantly impact your life or your child’s? Let us know in the comments.
