How much are good teachers worth?

Apparently, good kindergarten teachers are worth approximately $320,000. According to a Harvard economist and his team of researchers, that’s how much students with effective kindergarten teachers can expect to make over the course of their careers. The economists’ recently released study does something that other studies failed to do. It examined adult income and life paths rather than test scores, and revealed the substantial impact of early childhood education beyond the school years. The researchers looked at approximately 12, 000 children who had been a part of Project Star, an education experiment done in the 80s. What did they discover? Those kindergartners who had a good teacher were making about $1,000 more per year at the age of 27 than those who had less effective teachers.  Additionally, those with good teachers were more likely to attend college and more likely to be saving for retirement.

While there were several factors that distinguished high performing children from others who participated in Project Star (peers, smaller class size and higher socioeconomic status all contributed to better results), none of these factors explained the drastic variation in class performance. This led researchers to determine that teachers were the key, and as NYT writer David Leonhardt points out, “Some are highly effective. Some are not. And the differences can affect students for years to come.”

It’s true that The Times may have simply reported what many educators already know, but we thank them just the same. While it’s generally understood that you can’t put a price tag on someone’s worth, sometimes numbers make the point better than anything else.

Read the full NYT article here.

For more research regarding the impact of quality early childhood education, please visit the National Association for the Education of Young Children.