Determining teachers’ impact on test scores isn’t enough to measure effectiveness—policymakers must look also at how teachers affect their students’ behavior, suggests a new North Carolina study in the journal Education Next.
Using seven years of data on public school 9th graders who took classes in which their teachers receive traditional value-added ratings—English I and one of three math classes—the author created a math and reading test-score index and a behavior index that measures students’ non-cognitive skills, such as absences and on-time grade progression.
Controlling for poverty and other demographic factors, the study found teachers’ impact on non-cognitive skills, like adaptability, motivation, and self-restraint, is 10 times more predictive of students’ long-term success than teachers’ impact on student test scores.
