Standard Tests Do Reveal Which Teachers Are Best

In his Bloomberg View column, Advisory Council member Peter Orszag discusses two new studies that suggest there are benefits to evaluating teachers using metrics such as students’ test scores. Orszag writes that these metrics should be improved, but “that shouldn’t keep us from using the ones we have now.” A 2006 Hamilton Project discussion paper, “Identifying Effective Teachers Using Performance on the Job,” outlines a program of federal support to help states measure the effectiveness of individual teachers. In the paper, Robert Gordon, Thomas J. Kane, and Douglas O. Staiger provide recommendations for improving teacher effectiveness, including the removal of barriers to entering the teaching profession and making it more difficult to grant tenure to those least effective on the job. To read the full paper, click here.