Better Teachers: A Lesson Plan

摘要

Yet, while we know now that better teachers are critical, flaws in the way that administrators select and retain them mean that schools don't always hire the best. Many ingredients of good teaching are difficult to ascertain in advance-charisma and diligence come to mind-but research shows a teacher's own ability on standardized tests reliably predicts good performance in the classroom. You would think, then, that top-scoring teachers would be swimming in job offers, right? Not so, says Vanderbilt University professor Dale Ballou. High-scoring teaching applicants "do not fare better than others in the job market," he writes. "Indeed, remarkably, they do somewhat worse."