The teaching launch
It’s often said that a good teacher can change a student’s life, and now a Harvard researcher is demonstrating how much influence an effective educator can have. As described in a study in the Oct. 7 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Gary Chamberlain, the Louis Berkman Professor of Economics, found that middle school teachers can have an impact not only on students’ short-term educations, but on whether they attend college, and on the size of their paychecks at age 28. “This study definitely offers suggestive evidence, certainly in a predictive sense, that teacher quality matters,” Chamberlain said. “What we’re trying to do is put numbers on the variation in teacher quality and how large an effect it has on test score outcomes, and later outcomes, like college attendance and income.” How big is the impact teachers can make? When it comes to whether a student will attend college, Chamberlain said, the...