An Effective Teacher for Every Student

In nearly every state across the country, there has been recent legislative or judicial activity aimed at amending policies that shape the quality of the teacher labor force (e.g., Marianno, 2015). At the heart of this recent legislative and judicial action is the desire to attract and retain a high-quality teacher for every classroom.

The importance of good teachers to student success is not up for debate; over the last decade, research has shown that a high-quality teacher is the most important school-based factor influencing students’ achievement and long-term outcomes. Having a bad teacher rather than a good teacher for a single year can cost a student an entire year of learning gains (Hanushek, 1992; Hanushek & Rivkin, 2012).

Moreover, recent research shows that students assigned to higher-quality teachers are also more likely to attend college, attend higher-quality colleges, and earn higher salaries than their peers who were assigned to lower-quality teachers. These benefits compound when students are consistently in classrooms with high-quality teachers throughout their schooling (see, for example, Rivkin, Hanushek, & Kain (2005) and Chetty, Friedman, & Rockoff (2014)).