I read on a regular basis posts offering the argument that educational outcomes could be improved by "weeding out" the ineffective teachers. This is one. Eric Hanushek argues, "The future of our schools depends heavily on dealing with the small number of teachers who simply should not be in the classroom." The argument is even supported with "data" (see right). "If, as noted, we could replace just the bottom 5-10 percent of teachers with an average teacher, we could expect the achievement of U.S. students to rise at least to the level of Canada and perhaps to Finland."
How stupid is this argument? Well, consider a sports team. The team president walks in and announces "we need to remove the poorest two players and replace them with stars." The general manager looks at the team president and says, "well duh. How do you propose to do that?" The presumption in Hanushek's argument is that you can just replace duds with stars. In the real world, it doesn't work like that. The stars aren't available. They cost more (probably more than the salary cap will support). They don't want to play for your team. The weak players turn out to have had intangibles - they're role players, they're locker-room leaders. And so on. Arguing on the basis of made-up economics that you can just replace bad teachers and get magical results is deceptive and misleading.
How stupid is this argument? Well, consider a sports team. The team president walks in and announces "we need to remove the poorest two players and replace them with stars." The general manager looks at the team president and says, "well duh. How do you propose to do that?" The presumption in Hanushek's argument is that you can just replace duds with stars. In the real world, it doesn't work like that. The stars aren't available. They cost more (probably more than the salary cap will support). They don't want to play for your team. The weak players turn out to have had intangibles - they're role players, they're locker-room leaders. And so on. Arguing on the basis of made-up economics that you can just replace bad teachers and get magical results is deceptive and misleading.
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