Increasing the Effectiveness of Teachers in Low-Performing Schools

Although many factors influence student academic achievement, recent research clearly demonstrates the importance of teachers (see Goldhaber, this volume). Effective teachers can substantially attenuate meaningful differences in student achievement (Aaronson, Barrow, & Sander, 2007; Rivkin, Hanushek, & Kain, 2005; Rockoff, 2004) and later life outcomes (Chetty, Friedman, & Rockoff, 2011). Unfortunately, large differences within and across schools in teacher quality measured both by the credentials of teachers (Clotfelter, Ladd, & Vigdor, 2006, 2007; Lankford, Loeb, & Wyckoff, 2002) and their effectiveness (Isenberg et al., 2013) typically work to the disadvantage of low-income or low-performing students.