Do Top Teachers Produce "A Year And A Half Of Learning?"

Matthew DiCarlo:

One claim that gets tossed around a lot in education circles is that "the most effective teachers produce a year and a half of learning per year, while the least effective produce a half of a year of learning."

This talking point is used all the time in advocacy materials and news articles. Its implications are pretty clear: Effective teachers can make all the difference, while ineffective teachers can do permanent damage.

As with most prepackaged talking points circulated in education debates, the "year and a half of learning" argument, when used without qualification, is both somewhat valid and somewhat misleading. So, seeing as it comes up so often, let's very quickly identify its origins and what it means.

This particular finding is traceable to a 1992 paper by economist Eric Hanushek, one which focused primarily on the relationship between achievement and family composition in Gary, Indiana (the data are from the early- to mid-1970s, and include only low-income students). After reviewing his (very interesting) main results on the relationship between student achievement and family size, birth order and the interval between births, Hanushek presents an analysis of test-based teacher effects.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at September 12, 2012 5:24 AM
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