Policies Should Reflect the Importance of Teaching

By Michelle A. Rhee

I always knew our teachers were undervalued for the critical work they do, but nothing made that more apparent than the front page of The New York Times the other day. The paper reported on a groundbreaking study that found teachers have a far more lasting and wide-ranging effect on students than most people ever realized.

Economists at Harvard and Columbia universities looked at the lives of 2.5 million students over 20 years—an undertaking far broader and more detailed than seen in previous studies.

But it’s not just the scope of the study that makes it so remarkable. The study’s findings also are astounding. They show that students who had highly effective elementary and middle school teachers went on to have much better outcomes in life than students...