International research: More teachers and better education through higher salary

Tekst Robert Sikkes - Redactie Onderwijsblad - 11 maart 2019 - 3 Minuten om te lezen

Picture: Type tank

The research project was set up because the United States is struggling with a high teacher shortage and low educational achievement. For example, while Finland ranks high in the international school performance rankings, the United States has been dangling around the middle for decades. With math even generous and disturbingly below average. Not surprising, according to Hanushek and his research team, after their research that was published in mid-February.

Recruit

'What we show is that countries that recruit smarter teachers have active policies to recruit teachers from the better graduates,' says Hansuhek in the magazine EducationWeek. He points to Finland, where teachers are recruited from among the best performing young people. In the United States, it is the young people who achieve very average school grades. The reason that the brightest American students do not choose education, he says, can be explained. 'Our teachers are underpaid. That way we don't get the best candidates. '

Education economist Eric Hanushek: 'Our teachers are underpaid. That way we don't get the best candidates'

In the United States, primary and secondary school teachers' salaries are on average 22 percent lower, according to the figures used by the researchers. It is very difficult for American education to find enough teachers, the shortages in many states are increasing. Interest in teacher training has been declining for years. The past few months have been in multiple states ceased operations for a higher wage sometimes in combination with class reduction, with varying degrees of success.

Economic growth

The research shows that educational performance can improve if more young people choose the teaching profession who themselves obtained high grades. Parties that want to achieve this must therefore pay teachers better, is the advice of the education economists.

Hanushek works as a professor at Stanford University. He researches and publishes extensively on the effects of investment in education on economic growth. He concluded that they are positive in books en animations. Investments in education pay off in the form of higher economic growth.

It now appeared research: 'The value of smarter teachers' links the Pisa scores for arithmetic, language and science with the OECD data on the educational attainment of adults and teachers plus their salaries in 31 countries. According to Hanushek and his colleagues, the outcome of their research is robust after all kinds of control measures: better teachers provide better education. And you get better teachers by paying them better, a competitive salary compared to other graduates in higher education.

Better teachers provide better education. And you get better teachers by paying them better.

In EducationNext, in which the scientists explain their research, they also make it clear that although the educational level of parents plays a role in the school performance of students, the effect of a well-trained teacher exceeds this.

Math teachers who get high marks themselves drive math performance up. Teachers of English who have a high command of the language add an extra bonus to the language performance of their students. The role of the teacher is essential, Hanushek clarifies: "What teachers know matters."

Dutch situation

The study does not specifically address the Dutch situation. The Netherlands is, however, part of the sad list of countries that underpay teachers. And although the Netherlands is in the second tier of educational performance compared to the United States, the Pisa scores for language, mathematics and natural sciences are slowly but steadily falling. Especially with mathematics, the Netherlands is in a bad way.

Source: PISA - OECD

The OECD concluded earlier in the report Education at a glance that low pay is driving men out of education. In the study Hanushek writes that underpayment ultimately means that highly educated women also ignore education. In the Netherlands that trend is already visible. According to the researcher, this is a danger. Hanushek: 'There is no doubt that changing career choices pose a threat to education. We cannot forbid women from alternative job opportunities, instead we must make education more attractive. '

Also read: Women less often opt for teacher training