This new study from the National Bureau of Economic Research has been getting major press attention. At The Awl, Maria Bustillos questions the merit of the study and its efforts to “identify and fire ‘weaker’ teachers, for the sake of a barely perceptible increase in students’ ‘lifetime income.’” Bustillos also contrasts the successes of the Finnish school system and U.S. military schools to the U.S. model.
“The aggregate figure is estimated and rejoiced over, but the teacher in question is an individual, not an abstract quantity. This is not enough money to be crowing about in the newspaper; still less is it enough to be contemplating firing anybody over. That the authors would deliberately spin the number in this way seems like headline-baiting.”
