Teachers would have more recognition and status if there were concrete evidence that their methods are effective and based on reproducible research.
Is there a 10x teacher or even a 2x teacher? Surely there is, but how would we know?
In Asian cultures a handful of teachers make a million dollars a year because they do test prep: it's easy to tell when their students pass or fail the big test. The most successful ones are treated by parents and test-takers as A-list celebrities, or even beyond that. They'd sooner swoon meeting Gwen Lee than Scarlett Johansson.
But if you're teaching something harder to gauge, like "writing" or physical education, then it's hard to know if you're a 2x teacher or a 0.5x teacher. And you can't point to your research-backed methodology, because everybody else's methodology is also research-backed (n=22, observed over 3~6 weeks, as usual).
The people who raise the next generation should have recognition and status if they're doing a good job. Are they? Would any random person off the street be doing an equally good job? We don't really know.
Teachers teach thousands of students at a minimum over their careers. Surely this can be measured. If nobody is doing it itβs because of either teachers unions, other bureaucratic restrictions, or not caring enough.
