The Case for $320,000 Kindergarten Teachers

[Celebration]

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/28/business/economy/28leonhardt.html?src=busln

Economists have generally thought that the answer was not much. Great teachers and early childhood programs can have a big short-term effect. But the impact tends to fade. By junior high and high school, children who had excellent early schooling do little better on tests than similar children who did not — which raises the demoralizing question of how much of a difference schools and teachers can make.

There has always been one major caveat, however, to the research on the fade-out effect. It was based mainly on test scores, not on a broader set of measures, like a child’s health or eventual earnings. As Raj Chetty, a Harvard economist, says: “We don’t really care about test scores. We care about adult outcomes.”

...........................

Just as in other studies, the Tennessee experiment found that some teachers were able to help students learn vastly more than other teachers. And just as in other studies, the effect largely disappeared by junior high, based on test scores. Yet when Mr. Chetty and his colleagues took another look at the students in adulthood, they discovered that the legacy of kindergarten had re-emerged.

Students who had learned much more in kindergarten were more likely to go to college than students with otherwise similar backgrounds. Students who learned more were also less likely to become single parents. As adults, they were more likely to be saving for retirement. Perhaps most striking, they were earning more.

So, that book was right!! All I really need to know I learned in kindergarten...................

[Nite Owl]

1. All they looked at were test scores

it's like human beings just aren't that complex? That is all they seem to know how to do, and of course profitable for them to test and test and test.

A doctor gets a sick patient and it good with them so more sick patients go to him because they have heard he can help them. He listens to them carefully. He's a good doctor unless they see how sick all his patients are and he gets punished for it. It's the same way with teachers, some get the difficult kids and they are good with them. Maybe they don't all go to college but end up as fine people. They get punished because their kids have 'lesser' outcomes. There is a need to look at the bigger picture not just test scores. It's an art not a science.

[Celebration]

2. you did not READ this!!

The test score difference was nil by high school. But kids who had certain teachers in kindergarten went to college more consistently, had higher earnings, and fewer babies out of wedlock. The whole point of this is that they looked BEYOND test scores, and found lots of differences.

[Nite Owl]

5. THEY looked beyond the test scores

that is not what is being done now. Get it.

[Statistical]

3. Did you have a bad kingergarden techer?

"Students who had learned much more in kindergarten were more likely to go to college than students with otherwise similar backgrounds. Students who learned more were also less likely to become single parents. As adults, they were more likely to be saving for retirement. Perhaps most striking, they were earning more."

Sounds kinda like they looked at more than test scores. I am sorry you had a bad Kingergarden teacher.

[Salviati]

6. What the parent poster was complaining about was not the study referenced in the article

but the current push for education "reform" which puts high, and exclusive importance on test scores.

[n2doc]

4. Very interesting article- Thanks! n/t