(2012-01-12) Value Add Teacher Research

Nicholas Kristof summarizes a long-term research study validating the "Value Add" model of teacher quality (used by Wireless Generation and others). Students assigned to such high value-added teachers are more likely to go to college (College Education), earn higher incomes, and less likely to be teenage mothers (Teenage Pregnancy). On average, having such a teacher for one year raises a child's cumulative lifetime income by $50,000 (equivalent to $9,000 in present value at age 12 with a 5% interest rate). They note that the benefit to Standardized Test scores drops off after a couple years, which makes it seems like they may not be a great measure, but that's the whole basis for defining Value Add (Meta Data). Confusing.

Also note that any study like this measure effects in the past, which might not continue to hold true during an Economic Transition.

Feb25: releasing the data to the public has raised the visibility of problems with the Metric.