On Top of the News
Parents Should Be Allowed to Choose Their Kids’ Teacher
Time.com | 1/19/12

Behind the Headline
In Low-Income Schools, Parents Want Teachers Who Teach
Education Next | Summer 2007

Since teacher effectiveness varies greatly within schools, even good schools, parents need to do more than just pick good schools for their kids; they should do whatever they can to get good teachers for their kids. So argues Andy Rotherham in a new article on Time.com. A study published in Ed Next found that well-off parents would choose different kinds of teachers for their kids than poor parents. “Parents in high-poverty schools strongly value a teacher’s ability to raise student achievement and appear indifferent to student satisfaction. In wealthier schools the results are reversed: parents most value a teacher’s ability to keep students happy,” the study concluded.