Quality of Education depends on teachers

[Christopher]

A recent article in the LA Times showed research on educating 5th-grade school children, and the results were the following:

The difference (in learning) has almost nothing to do with the size of the class, the students or their parents.

It's their teachers.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-teachers-value-20100815,0,2695044.story

Response to this data has varied. Both U.S. Secretary and State Secretary of Education have endorsed the release of this data. However,

In Los Angeles, the teachers union has called public disclosure of the results "dangerous" and "irresponsible."

... Critics, including many teachers unions and some policy experts, say the method is based on flawed tests that don't measure the more intangible benefits of good teaching and lead to a narrow curriculum.

http://articles.latimes.com/2010/aug/16/local/la-me-0817-teachers-react-20100817

Interesting. Gotta love the unions! But to the union's credit, use of standardized tests as measurement does have significant flaws, particularly in cross-cultural evaluations of performance.