History of IDEA
Jeannie Oakes, Founder and Former Director
Youth Voice in School Finance
NEW REPORT: Los Angeles' road to A-G for all
Without Dollars and Sense Powerpoint
Past Educational Opportunity Reports
How to improve teacher quality? Treat teachers as individuals
- 05-10-2011
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Commentary by Frederick M. Hess, Greg M. Gunn, and Olivia M. Meeks/Education Week
The teacher-quality debate today is something of an absurdist’s delight. On the one hand are union leaders who insist that we shouldn’t expect miracles from teachers already doing their best to inspire, mentor, design and align lessons, differentiate instruction, craft assessments, analyze data, grade homework, connect with parents, enforce discipline, promote fitness, cultivate a love of learning, write individualized education programs, and so on. We’re told that the job is what it is, and that all we can usefully do is pay, support, and appreciate teachers more. Anything else is to rail against nature’s course. To those of us unmoved by this appeal, would-be reformers argue that many teachers are “ineffective,” and they propose plans to replace them with a couple of million all-stars via the skillful manipulation of value-added assessment, new evaluation systems, and merit pay. Meanwhile, the professional-development gurus insist, against all evidence and a couple of compelling Institute of Education Sciences studies, that if we’d just embrace new preparation models, they could dramatically boost the quality of teaching. (more...)
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