US Chamber of Commerce

Teachers make a huge impact on their students in the classroom. Now a multi-decade study suggests that teachers who raise their students’ standardized test scores have a lasting positive effect on their students’ lives well beyond the classroom.

A new study by Harvard professors Raj Chetty and John Friedman and Columbia professor Jonah Rockoff found evidence that those students whose teachers were considered highly effective in grade school have greater college matriculation and adult earnings. The study is based on the impact of “value-added ratings” for educators. This tool enables a teacher’s effectiveness to be measured through improvements in his or her students’ annual standardized test scores while controlling for student demographic traits, including poverty and race.

One of the standout findings shows that just one year of schooling under a teacher whose classes score highly on standardized tests increases a student’s lifetime earnings by an estimated $50,000. Students who were assigned to teachers with a higher "value add" were also found more likely to attend college, live in better neighborhoods, and save more for retirement. 

The authors of the study state that caution needs to be taken when judging a teacher's performance solely based on the "value added" model. This could increase "teaching to the test" or worse yet, flat out cheating. This research does show a strong likelihood that a student's economic and social wellbeing is tied to the quality of teachers in secondary school.  

This study will be a key piece in helping leaders throughout the country continue the education reform movement, which includes evaluating teacher effectiveness and, in some cases, rewarding teachers based on their effectiveness.

This article appears in ICW's January 2012 newsletter.