Who Taught the Teachers · Episode 10 of 12 · 22 min
Judging the Teacher
The 1966 Coleman Report was read as proof that schools barely matter, yet fifty years later economists put a number on one teacher: replacing a bottom-5-percent teacher is worth about $250,000 in lifetime earnings to a classroom. The episode follows the value-added revolution, No Child Left Behind, Race to the Top, and merit pay, then the retreat. The synthesis is uncomfortable: teacher effects are large, but tools to identify them remain crude.
Who's who
- James S. ColemanSociologist who led the 1966 Equality of Educational Opportunity survey
- Terrel H. BellReagan's Education Secretary who created the A Nation at Risk commission
- Eric HanushekStanford economist who priced teacher effectiveness
- William SandersTennessee statistician who built the first value-added system
- Raj ChettyEconomist who linked teacher value-added to adult earnings
- Michelle Rhee+1 more episodeD.C. schools chancellor who launched IMPACT
- Arne DuncanEducation Secretary behind Race to the Top
- Jesse RothsteinBerkeley economist and leading critic of value-added methods
Where it happens
- Tennessee+2 more episodesHome of the first statewide value-added scoring system
- Washington, D.C.+31 more episodesSchool system that launched IMPACT evaluations
- Nashville, Tennessee+3 more episodesSite of the POINT merit-pay experiment
Timeline
- July 1966Coleman Report released
- April 1983A Nation at Risk warns of a rising tide of mediocrity
- 1992Tennessee value-added system becomes state law
- January 8, 2002No Child Left Behind signed, requiring highly qualified teachers
- 2009Race to the Top pays states to tie evaluation to test-score growth
- 2015-2019States requiring student-growth measures fall from 44 to 34
Still debated
Researchers dispute whether value-added scores are biased by student sorting. Whether D.C.'s IMPACT generalizes, and whether the 2020s retreat from evaluation reform is wisdom or fatigue, also remain open.