"Seeking--and Finding--Good Teaching"

The following opinion piece appeared in the October 22 issue of Education Week. It is written by Dr. Julie Sweetland, Inspired Teaching's Senior Research Associate.

Education policymakers are starting to act on what teachers have long known: No matter what policies, curricula, or governance structures are in place, they are only as effective as the teacher who translates them into the daily life of the classroom.

Issues of teacher quality are absolutely critical, because research shows that teachers are the single most influential school-based factor in student success. As the education establishment increases its focus on excellent instruction, it's imperative that the players in the teacher-quality arena don't take the politically expedient but educationally dangerous shortcut of equating good teaching with high student test scores.

If the goal is to foster excellent teaching, a better alternative may be to finally invest in a dramatically improved approach to teacher evaluation. It's time to adopt an approach that creates a common language of what good teaching looks like, helps everyone in a school system learn that language, and provides a clear means of supporting them as they walk the talk.

The task is difficult, but the time is right.

There are signs that the standards movement that has dominated public discussion on school reform for the past decade is finally giving way to a teacher-quality movement.

At every level of governance, a consensus is emerging that teacher-quality policies are something that we have to get right.


Click here to read the full article.