Rethinking Teacher Quality and Metrics-mania
Once President Barack Obama referred to the claim that teacher quality translates directly into increasing lifetime earnings of students, that assertion and connected study are destined to remain in the public domain in the same way that claims about three quality teachers in a row has persisted. These claims share something other than being quickly and broadly embraced, however; they are also misleading, incomplete, and harmful to our understanding and pursuit of higher teacher quality (see DiCarlo on three great teachers in a row claims andNEPC's review of NBER study connecting teacher quality and student lifetime earnings).
Part of the problem with building education policy on flawed research is that the debate tends to focus on the quality of the study in question, and as a result, we fail to ask broader questions about the process. For example, even critics of some of these studies and policies coming from the studies remain steadfast in
Part of the problem with building education policy on flawed research is that the debate tends to focus on the quality of the study in question, and as a result, we fail to ask broader questions about the process. For example, even critics of some of these studies and policies coming from the studies remain steadfast in
