Assigning $$$ to teaching

Peter Meyer / April 5, 2011

One of the nation's leading education economists, Eric Hanushek has a must-read story in Education Next, just released today, ?Valuing Teachers: How much is a good teacher worth??? And if you don't have time to read the full story, at least see Eric's summary of it. He applies some basic economic analysis to the ?conventional wisdom that teachers are the most important ingredient in an effective school.??

And, in the process, he reminds us that it should also be conventional wisdom ?that teachers are the most important ingredient in an ineffective school.? Indeed, often lost in the national demonizing teacher debate is the simple fact that ?there are large differences in teacher quality, and these differences are felt in very tangible ways by students and by U.S. society.?

Hanushek analyzed the financial impact of differences in student achievement and then matched that up with the students' teachers. He says it's ?fairly straightforward set of calculations.? ?And, he concludes,

[T]he numbers are astounding.? A teacher at the 85th percentile can, in comparison to an average teacher, raise the present value of each student's lifetime earnings by over $20,000?implying that such a teacher with a class of 20 students generates over $400,000 in economic benefits, compared to an average teacher, for each year that she gets such achievement gains.? Gains go up and down with how good the teacher is and with how many students she has.? And the gains are symmetrical in comparison to the average teacher ? a teacher at the 15th percentile subtracts $400,000 in value from her class of 20 students.

Ouch.?

?--Peter Meyer, Bernard Lee Schwartz Policy Fellow

Category: Teachers