The 74 Million – Matt Barnum
“Those who follow education policy have surely heard these two mantras: “Teachers are the most important in-school factor affecting student achievement” and so-called “Non-cognitive skills, like grit, are incredibly important for students’ long-run success.” Now a new working paper from Brown University researchers joins an emerging body of evidence combining these two separate strands to gauge how important teachers are in developing these other outcomes not so easily measured by a test. The research has produced several important findings: Teachers do influence how their students develop these kinds of skills, like effort and determination, and some educators are better at it than others. But teachers who excel at improving test scores are not necessarily the same ones who are best at improving student attendance or happiness — and figuring out who those teachers will be based on background or training is not easy to do.”(more)