

Freakonomics: Quantifying Teacher Effectiveness? - cwan
http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/08/quantifying-teacher-effectiveness/

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tokenadult
Interesting and lively HN thread on the actual Atlantic article:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1036509>

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MaysonL
Great video on how a pretty good teacher (as conventionally measured) learned
how to _really_ teach.

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwslBPj8GgI>

titled: Confessions of a converted lecturer.

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ams6110
Honestly, the really big factor in teaching effectiveness is the parents. If a
kid is living in a household with dysfunctional or drug-addicted parents who
don't give a damn about school, then with rare exceptions it doesn't matter
how good the teachers are.

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epistemenical
[citation needed]

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ams6110
[http://www.hfrp.org/publications-resources/browse-our-
public...](http://www.hfrp.org/publications-resources/browse-our-
publications/family-involvement-makes-a-difference-in-school-success)

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epistemenical
_Family involvement helps children get ready to enter school, promotes their
school success, and prepares youth for college._

That's a very different thing from what you claimed (which is that family
involvement is the end-all of education). Clearly families make a difference,
but they're far from the _only_ factor, and the summary there certainly
doesn't support the claim that it's impossible to succeed without good
familial support. Education is a complicated thing where a lot of things
matter.

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pmichaud
The interesting part isn't what makes a great teacher, which is largely
intuitive. The part I want to know about is how to produce and reward those
effective teachers systematically.

