Ignoring Red Herrings
Ed Note – This week Eric Hanushek and Diane Ravitch are discussing whether removing the lowest-performing teachers is a good idea. Hanushek started the debate on Monday and Ravitch responded yesterday. Here’s Hanushek’s response below. Ravitch will finish the conversation with a post tomorrow.
By Eric Hanushek
Diane comes back to a simple prescription: We should pursue business as usual with a few extensions of current policy. Unfortunately that is not serving us well, because this is exactly what we have done for several decades. We have developed a system that pays little attention to students and their achievement but that supports any adult who has found a job in schools. This policy does not look good by historical evidence on student outcomes. But it is common to defend this basic lack of management by throwing in red herrings whenever any policy change is suggested.
Once more through the evidence:
We have clear and consistent estimates about the variation in teacher effectiveness that exists in schools. The information comes from
