Tear Down This Wall
The Case for a Radical Overhaul of Teacher Certification
November 27, 2001
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| Resident Scholar Frederick M. Hess |
But more is not enough: America also needs better teachers. Empirical evidence of the importance of teacher quality is mounting, and has sparked a dialogue about the quality of the nation's teaching force. In Tennessee, research by William Sanders has quantified the cumulative effects of even one or two bad teachers on a student. He found substantial differences in student achievement based on the sequence in which a student had particular teachers. Similar studies elsewhere have shown the same results. Perversely, the students who need the very best teachers are the ones most likely to be hurt by the shortfall of quality teachers.
Frederick M. Hess is a resident scholar and director of education policy studies at AEI.




