tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9834762.post-4370636702605973612009-01-03T16:23:00.002-05:002009-01-03T16:25:59.361-05:00In this New Yorker article, Malcolm Gladwell discusses how to figure out who is going to be a good teacher. But first he shares some information on how important good teachers are:<br /><br /><<<br />Eric Hanushek, an economist at Stanford, estimates that the students of a very bad teacher will learn, on average, half a year’s worth of material in one school year. The students in the class of a very good teacher will learn a year and a half’s worth of material. That difference amounts to a year’s worth of learning in a single year. Teacher effects dwarf school effects: your child is actually better off in a “bad” school with an excellent teacher than in an excellent school with a bad teacher. Teacher effects are also much stronger than class-size effects. You’d have to cut the average class almost in half to get the same boost that you’d get if you switched from an average teacher to a teacher in the eighty-fifth percentile. And remember that a good teacher costs as much as an average one, whereas halving class size would require that you build twice as many classrooms and hire twice as many teachers.<br />>><br /><br />A worthwhile read.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/9834762-437063670260597361?l=schmoozed.lookstein.org%2Findex.html' alt='' /></div>Shalom Bergerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13326915889797284507noreply@blogger.com0