Who Stays? Who Moves? Who Leaves? Teacher Preparation, Teacher Induction and Teacher Quality
Rick Hanuchek and Hank Levin, friends since the sixties, are education economists with hundreds of books and articles bearing their names, and, also, have starkly differing views on education and our economy. On Wednesday night it was a delight to listen to the debate, “Can we put a Price on Student Achievement?: Financial Returns for Academic Success,” at the Roosevelt House. (I’ll post the video of the evening as soon as it is posted). Hanushek painted a disturbing picture, compared to other nations the USA education system is not doing well. Using NAEP and PISA data we’re below the middle of the pack, and New York State is also below the midpoint line. For New York State it is especially disturbing since per capita spending is second highest in the nation. Hanuchek sees only one solution: increasing teacher quality, and, the only path is substantial salary increases for high VAM teachers and firing low VAM teachers. Hanachek’s model converts NAEP and PISA score increases into economic growth over extended periods of time and translates academic gains into economic growth and trillions of dollars. Well beyond my statistical skills!
Levin doesn’t dispute Hanuchek’s data; however, he looks at per capita GDP by nation, and, asks, since the USA is at the top of the OECD nations, what are we doing right? His answer is that non-cognitive factors may, excuse the expression, trump test scores. See an excellent discussion of the impact of non-cognitive skills on the labor market here Levin also questions the use of VAM scores, they are only meaningful over extended periods of time, although, he agrees, teacher quality is always important.
In the question period I asked whether other indicators, such as reducing teenage Who Stays? Who Moves? Who Leaves? Teacher Preparation, Teacher Induction and Teacher Quality | Ed In The Apple: