Market-oriented approach to improving teaching skills

Raising the quality of teachers has become an American priority that cuts across partisan lines. Driven by teacher shortages in certain subjects – such as mathematics, science and special education – and in rural and inner-city schools, state legislatures have earmarked billions of dollars for salary increases and teacher training.

What is strange about the drive to "professionalise" teaching is that it has taken place largely within the confines of the existing public school system. Little attention has been paid to how parental choice and competition, in the form of vouchers and charter schools, will affect the profession.

Researcher Caroline M. Hoxby argues that school choice would raise demand for highly talented and skilled teachers who would receive rewards closely linked to their performance.

Some of the results of her research show that schools, when facing tougher competition:

Have greater demand for teachers who attended well-regarded colleges, majored in particular subject areas (especially in mathematics and science), and who put in more effort and show more independence.

Are more likely to hire such teachers and to pay them higher wages than they would earn in schools that face less competition.

In general, have less demand for certification and master's degrees.

Pay teachers who hold such credentials less than similarly educated teachers earn in schools that are less choice-driven.

Hoxby also says that by making teaching a more market-oriented profession, school choice might also make it a more attractive career.

Source: Caroline M. Hoxby, Changing the Profession: How would school choice affect teachers? Education Matters, Spring 2001.

For text http://www.edmatters.org/2001sp/57.html
For more on Education http://www.ncpa.org/iss/edu/

FMF Policy Bulletin\27 November 2001