This article by C. Kirabo Jackson that appears in the Winter 2019 edition of EDUCATION NEXT. Click HERE to read the full article.

He finds that, while teachers have notable effects on both test scores and non-cognitive skills, their impact on non-cognitive skills is 10 times more predictive of students’ longer-term success in high school than their impact on test scores. We cannot identify the teachers who matter most by using test-score impacts alone, because many teachers who raise test scores do not improve non-cognitive skills, and vice versa.

These results provide hard evidence that measuring teachers’ impact through their students’ test scores captures only a fraction of their overall effect on student success. To fully assess teacher performance, policymakers should consider measures of a broad range of student skills, classroom observations, and responsiveness to feedback alongside effectiveness ratings based on test scores excellent.