By Caroline Novak
(Editor’s Note: You may download a longer version of this article as it appeared in the Montgomery Advertiser.)
A steadily growing body of research suggests teachers have a greater impact on student learning than any other school factor. In other words, teachers are the solution, and the single most powerful action we can take to improve student achievement is to ensure that a great teacher stands at the front of every classroom.
To that end, improving the quality of education in Alabama requires a comprehensive strategy to ensure that every Alabama student is taught by an effective teacher. At every step along the way, decisions must be designed to give children the effective teachers they deserve. This starts with who goes into teaching and includes everything from how they are prepared, to how we evaluate job performance, to professional development that strengthens job performance to dismissal.
One recent study shows that students with three ineffective teachers in a row scored 50 percentile points lower on a standardized test than a similar group taught by three effective teachers in a row. Another study demonstrates that switching from an uncertified to a certified teacher had an average impact of 1% on student achievement, compared with a 10% impact achieved by switching from a bottom-quartile to a top-quartile teacher. Compounded over the years of a student’s education, access to effective teachers has life-changing implications.
Our best opportunity for significant progress will be realized if the state, in collaboration with teachers, develops a clear definition of teacher effectiveness.
As a state, we are not alone with this challenge. A 2009 report from The New Teacher Project called “The Widget Effect: Our National Failure to Acknowledge and Act on Differences in Teacher Effectiveness” documents how teacher evaluation systems fail to recognize either excellent or poor teaching, instead lumping all teachers into the same category.
A clear definition of teacher effectiveness, a comprehensive and credible evaluation process, coupled with accurate measures of student learning, will unquestionably improve student learning in Alabama.
Caroline Novak is president of the A+ Education Partnership.
