Teaching Profession Report Roundup

Parent Preferences for Teachers

By Mary C. Breaden — December 04, 2007 1 min read
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What Do Parents Value in Education? An Empirical Investigation of Parents’ Revealed Preferences for Teachers

Parents at wealthier schools generally tend to consider a teacher’s job satisfaction more important than whether the teacher is a high achiever, but parents from poor schools are more likely to value the teacher’s achievement status above job satisfaction, a recent study found.

The study by Lars Lefgren, an associate professor of economics at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, and Brian Jacob, a professor in public policy at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, gathered data by interviewing principals in an unnamed school district in a Western state about the teachers that parents were most likely to select and parents’ reasons behind their preferences.

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A version of this article appeared in the December 05, 2007 edition of Education Week

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