Kindergarten Teachers Worth Their Weight in Gold

Wednesday, 28 July 2010 | by Pat's Picks

“The Case for $320,000 Kindergarten” is the eye-catching headline I saw on the front page of the New York Times this morning. Economy columnist David Leonhardt looks at data indicating that the quality of education in kindergarten is so important to a student’s development that an exceptional teacher is actually worth about $320,000 a year to society. While traditional research has only looked at the impact of a child’s early education on their test scores, a new approach considered how a good kindergarten education can affect a child all the way into adulthood. According to the data, children who received good primary teachers are much more likely to go to college, are less likely to become single parents and earn far more than their contemporaries who had a sub-standard experience.

Click here for a PDF of the findings