Office Hours: Eric Hanushek on Teacher Quality

Published: August 17, 2017

Hoover Institution Senior Fellow Eric Hanushek responds to your questions related to the quality of teachers in education.

1. 0:18 - How should we evaluate teachers, and should student performance contribute to those evaluations? 
2. 1:24 - Wouldn’t using student performance punish students teaching in disadvantaged or poorly performing schools?
3. 2:52 - How do you evaluate teachers who teach subjects that cannot be tested?
4. 3:22 - Couldn’t relying on test scores encourage cheating or other bad behavior by teachers?
5. 4:03 - How should we hire and retain teachers into the future? How do we ensure that the most effective teachers stay in the classroom?
6. 7:35 - Many people believe standardized testing is an unhelpful practice. Are tests a reliable measure of the skills learned or the effectiveness of a teacher?
7. 8:38 - Do test scores predict economic growth rates?
8. 9:33 - What is the federal government’s role in education policy?
9. 11:04 - What is the role of state governments in education policy?
10. 11:47 - How should federal, state, and local governments work together in education policy?  

Teaching is one of the few industries in America where the link between performance and pay is unrelated. A great teacher who happens to be young gets paid much less than a mediocre teacher who has been around for decades. If we want to see better results in our schools, we need more flexibility on how we hire, reward, and retain great teachers.  

Watch the original video “Investing in Good Teachers Pays Big Dividends.”