Writer: Teachers' Advanced Degrees Yield Little Classroom Benefit

In an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times (10/3) Manhattan Institute fellow Marcus A. Winters writes that the wide range of teacher quality in US classrooms "suggests that some teachers deserve higher salaries than others, and indeed today's public school systems have a tiered system of rigid salary ladders in which teachers are given extra compensation for factors commonly thought to be related to effectiveness" such as years of service and advanced academic credentials. Winters notes, however, that according to his research, there is "no discernible relationship between a teacher's experience and credentials and the academic gains made by their students during the school year."