Value-Added Teacher Reform

“There is widespread concern that elementary and secondary school education in the United States is deteriorating and is now inferior to that of many other countries…Proposals for reform fall into two main classes: increasing competition in the provision of educational services; improving the quality of public school teachers.” “Maybe most students who attend bad schools have limited aptitude and motivation because of low IQ, poor physical or mental health, peer-group pressures, a bad family environment, or effects of popular culture. How far such impediments to academic performance can be remedied by teachers, however skilled, and at what cost, is unclear to me.”