Which Teacher Would You Want Teaching Your Kids?

Alright, alright now. Before you go and dismiss surveys as a needed interpretation tool (because I told you so in my previous post) check this out as also reported in the wsj:

A study released by the National Bureau of Economic Research and prepared by Duke University professors found that teachers with master degrees had no impact on students performance regarding their math and reading year-end standardized exams. The factors that had impact were: experience in classroom, attending competitive undergraduate institutions and higher scores on licensing exams.

They therefore concluded that teachers with strong credentials should work with students who most need them.

So what does that mean and what do you think:

• Should these teachers work with the slower student or the most gifted?
• Shouldn’t we give more thoughts to what makes a superior teacher and invest in this?
• Next time teachers flaunt their master degree accomplishment, what would cross your mind?

See, and I told you to be careful with interpreting surveys results.

p.s. The study above examined teachers’ credentials alongside the scores of 75% of its students in grades 3 – 5 from 1994 – 2003.