In a front-page story today, The New York Times reported on a new study that shows the long-term effects of good teachers on students, academically and economically. The study tracked 2.5 million students over 20 years, observing the impact of teachers who had significantly raised their students' test scores.

The study, authored by Harvard and Columbia University educators and titled "The long-term impact of teachers: Teacher value-added and student outcomes in adulthood" furthers the controversial debate about how valuable value-added teaching ratings are.

The key finding, according to the Times, is that "elementary- and middle-school teachers who help raise their students’ standardized-test scores seem to have a wide-ranging, lasting positive effect on those students’ lives beyond academics, including lower teenage-pregnancy rates and greater college matriculation and adult earnings."

I would encourage all to read the story, here.