The value of great teachers

There was an article I nearly covered a few days ago--Sunday--in The New York Times that told of the high value of good teachers on children and the great effects they can have. I thought it so self-evident that I didn't write about it. Now comes a column from The Times' own Nicholas Kristof, expanding on it: The Value of Teachers "...a landmark new research paper underscores that the difference between a strong teacher and a weak teacher lasts a lifetime. Having a good fourth-grade teacher makes a student 1.25 percent more likely to go to college, the research suggests, and 1.25 percent less likely to get pregnant as a teenager. Each of the students will go on as an adult to earn, on average, $25,000 more over a lifetime — or about $700,000 in gains for an average size class — all attributable to that ace teacher back in the fourth grade. That’s right: A great teacher is worth hundreds of thousands of dollars to each year’s students, just in the extra income they will earn. The study, by economists at Harvard and Columbia universities, finds that if a great teacher is leaving, parents should hold bake sales or pass the hat around in hopes of collectively offering the teacher as much as a $100,000 bonus to stay for an extra year. Sure, that’s implausible — but their children would gain a benefit that far exceeds even that sum." That is, if the parent is involved. And if the parent cares about their child. And their child's success. Links: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/12/opinion/kristof-the-value-of-teachers.html; http://obs.rc.fas.harvard.edu/chetty/value_added.html; http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/06/education/big-study-links-good-teachers-to-lasting-gain.html?scp=2&sq=teachers&st=cse;