The Atlantic published an article in their January/February 2010 issue called “What Makes a Great Teacher?” that discusses some of the recent findings in education research. The article discusses some of the ways that teacher quality is becoming increasingly important in education. Parents who worry about sending their children to “good schools” should instead worry about getting their children in front of “good teachers.”
The article profiles William Taylor, a 5th grade teacher at Kimball Elementary School in Washington, D.C., whose students tend to start the school year below grade level and end the year well above grade level. As the article says, “On that first day of school, only 40 percent of Mr. Taylor’s students were doing math at grade level. By the end of the year, 90 percent were at or above grade level.”
The article profiles William Taylor, a 5th grade teacher at Kimball Elementary School in Washington, D.C., whose students tend to start the school year below grade level and end the year well above grade level. As the article says, “On that first day of school, only 40 percent of Mr. Taylor’s students were doing math at grade level. By the end of the year, 90 percent were at or above grade level.”
Education research for years has examined various factors that go into school performance – families, neighborhoods, household income, demographics, culture, English proficiency and others. It’s often hard to find a difference between “correlation” and “causation” – do certain kids do well in school because of some external factors (“causation”) or because of the whole picture of who they are (“correlation”)? When parents have books in the home, their kids tend to do better in reading – but do the books at home cause the better reading scores, or are kids whose parents own books more likely to be read to by their parents?
The Atlantic article on “What Makes a Good Teacher” shares some surprising information: more than any other factor in education, teachers matter. Using 20 years’ worth of data from Teach for America, the article shares some insights into what makes a great teacher – and what all teachers can learn to become better at motivating and shaping the minds of their students.
Here are some secrets from the article on what makes a great teacher (according to data from Teach for America):
- Big goals: Great teachers set big, audacious goals for their students. They want every child in their classroom to succeed, they are not satisfied with failure, and they take their students’ successes – and failures – personally.
- Constant reinvention: Great teachers are constantly looking for ways to improve their effectiveness and are willing to embrace big changes in how they teach – even if it’s inconvenient for them or requires a complete re-thinking of how they operate. Great teachers do not use the same worksheets and lesson plans year after year – they’re always eager to find a new angle.
- Recruiting students and families: Great teachers build relationships that go beyond the classroom – they help students and their families take ownership of the learning process, at school and at home.
- Maintain focus: Great teachers make sure that everything they do is contributing to student learning, with no distractions or wasted effort.
- Exhaustive planning: Great teachers make detailed, purposeful plans for each day and for the full school year, working backward from the desired result.
- Refusing to surrender: Great teachers never give up. Despite limited budgets, the frustrations of bureaucracy, or the challenges posed by their students’ impoverished home lives, they keep working and keep their students’ eyes on the prize.
- Perseverance is important: Teach for America found that some of their best teachers had started college with mediocre grades, and then had improved their GPAs during the last two years of college.
- Happy teachers are great teachers: Teachers profiled by Teach for America who rated themselves as “very content” with their lives were 43% more likely to perform well in the classroom.
- Knowledge matters - sometimes: Math majors are more likely to be effective math teachers. People who attend a selective college are more likely to be successful as teachers, but a master’s degree in education seems to have no impact on student success.
The Department of Education has introduced a new program called “Race to the Top” to give billions of dollars in grants to states that can show how to identify the best teachers, find the best teaching practices, and replicate those successes for other students. With a new focus on great teaching, U.S. schools might have one of their best chances in a long time to make a meaningful improvement in our nation’s future.
Read Amanda Ripley’s article, “What Makes a Great Teacher,” here: http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2010/01/what-makes-a-great-teacher/7841/1/
Ben Gran (http://benjamingran.com/) is a former teacher, freelance writer and marketing consultant based in Des Moines, Iowa. He is an award-winning blogger who loves to write about careers and the future of work.
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