More than any other variable in education — more than schools or curriculum — teachers matter.
This week’s Atlantic article about teaching should be required reading for every American teacher, teacher in training, and education professor.
We frequently make excuses in education and try to explain why students don’t learn. Twenty years of Teach for America data, however, shows that regardless of school or the socioeconomic level of the students, many teachers in the course of one school year help students make over a year’s worth of improvement.
What do great teachers do? According to the article, they
- Set goals for their students and always look for new ways to accomplish those goals.
- They engage students and parents in accomplishing those goals.
- They focus on student learning at all times.
- They plan and work tirelessly and thoughtfully.
- They refuse to make excuses for learning.
The article then provides specific strategies that great teachers incorporate in their classrooms and also delineates the teacher qualities that appear to be most important when hiring new teachers.
Information in the article is based on Teaching as Leadership, a new book Teach for American will publish in February. I can’t wait to read it.
