1) Professor Lefgren, you and Brian Jacob have just released some data about parents who request certain teachers. In general, what were your findings?

We find that parents make requests both on the basis of academic achievement as well as student satisfaction.  A principal's assessment of a teacher's soft skills—the ability to help children enjoy school—is actually a better predictor of parent requests than a principal's assessment of a teacher's ability to raise academic achievement.  This overall finding, however, masks differences across schools.  In low income schools, parents value academic considerations much more than student satisfaction when selecting teachers.  In high income schools the picture is reversed.  This may reflect that in high income schools, it is easier to find high quality academics so parents have the luxury of requesting teachers on the basis of other factors.

2) You divide up schools into "affluent" and "poverty". Is there any middle ground?

Our actual estimation strategy takes into account that schools can have any fraction of low income students.  The comparison of low and high income schools is performed to clearly illustrate the observed differences in preferences.  In middle income schools, parents appear to make parent requests on the basis of both academic and non-academic factors.

3) Some parents are more concerned about "student satisfaction"- perhaps they want their kids to come home happy and well adjusted, while other parents may be more concerned about academics. Should we really want students to be "happy" and "content" or should we want hard working kids who are learning?

Yes.  As a parent myself, I expect my child to be learning in an environment in which he feels very secure and happy.  Ideally, we wouldn't have to make compromises between a rigorous academic environment as opposed to a nurturing one.  In practice, we may find ourselves in a circumstance where teachers available to us meet one criterion better than another.  We then have to choose what we believe to be in the best long term interests for our child.

4) In every school, principals know who the "good teachers" are, the kids know who the "good teachers" are, and even the teachers know who the "good teachers" are. Yet not all parents want their children in those classes. What's operative here?

Looking at the data, even unpopular teachers have some fans.  Some times there are idiosyncratic factors at work.  A parent may be a neighbor of a teacher, for example.  In other cases, it's an issue where some kids thrive with a teacher who does poorly with other students.  Our findings reflect average preferences for teacher characteristics.  There are of course exceptions to these average findings.

5) " In Low Income Schools, Parents Want Teachers Who Teach" is the title of your research.  Should it not be re-written to say "In Low Income Schools, Parents Want Teachers Who Make Kids Work"? Or am I wrong here?

I don't really have enough information to say.  Parents in these low income schools value teachers who are organized, manage the classroom well, and are able to increase reading and math achievement.  These are the items we used to construct our index of a teacher's academic ability.  I'm not sure it's about hard work, better pedagogy, or more effective time use.

6) What kinds of parents seem to make these requests?

In all schools, low income and minority parents are less likely to make requests than other parents.  It is the case, however, that some parents of disadvantaged children make requests as well.

7) What kinds of teachers do parents seem to want? Are there racial, ethnic differences?

In the school district we examined, there is relatively little ethnic diversity among the teachers.  Also, the large majority of elementary school teachers are female.  We didn't have the statistical power to examine this (very interesting) question.

8) Who are the parents who make these requests? Mothers or fathers or both?

We don't know.  Our data linked the request to the child but not the requesting individual.

9) Raising student achievement may be difficult if the student has say an 80 or 90 I.Q. Are parents being unrealistic at times?

Published Jume 4, 2007