What influence does an individual teacher have in their classroom? Although most attempts to answer this question arrive at slightly different quantitative estimates, all researchers agree that the impact of the decisions and actions made by individual teachers is far greater than the impact of decisions made at the school or district level.
Reporting on their analysis of achievement scores from five subject areas for some 60,000 students across grades 3 through 5, Wright, Horn and Sanders (1997) note:
The most effective factor affecting student learning is the teacher. In addition, the results show wide variation in effectivness among teachers. Effective teachers appear to be effective with students of all achievement levels regardless of the level of diversity in their class.
Hayock (1998) describes the achievement difference between students who spend a year with a highly effective teacher as opposed to a less effective teacher.
On average, the most effective teachers produced gains of 53 percentage points in student achievement over one year, whereas the least effective teachers produced achievement gains of about 14 percentage points over one year. To understand these results, consider the fact that researchers estimate that students typically gain about 34 percentile points in achievement during one academic year. That is, a student who scores at the 50th percentile in mathematics in September will score at the 84th percentile on the same test given in May.
Even more startling about these numbers is the generally accepted notion that students gain about 6 percentage points simply from growing one year older and gleaning new knowledge and information through everyday life.
If the effect of attending the class of one of the least effective teachers for a year is not debilitating enough, the cumulative effect can be devastating. To illustrate, consider the findings from Haycock (1998). Over three years, students with the most effective teachers made an 83 percentile point gain. Over those same three years, students with the least effective teachers made a 29 percentile point gain. Differences of this magnitude are stunning! They can represent the differences between a "remedial label" and placement in the "accelerated" track.
So what makes for an effective teacher? One teacher level factor that affects student achievement is "instructional strategies". It is perhaps self-evident that more effective teachers use more effective instructional strategies. It is probably also true that effective teachers have more instructional strategies at their disposal. The expert teacher has acquired a wide array of instructional strategies along with the knowledge of when these strategies might be most useful.
Another teacher level factor is classroom management. It is mentioned in some form in virtually every major study of student achievement. This makes intuitive sense--a classroom that is chaotic as a result of poor management not only does not enhance student achievement, it might even inhibit it.
The final factor is "instructional planning". This may be the least addressed teacher-level factor. This lack of attention is unfortunate for two reasons. First, there is a strong and extensive research base that can be readily translated into practical suggestions and protocols for the construction of classroom curriculum. Second, many breakdowns in student learning may be a function of poor classroom curriculum design.
One of the most important responsibilities I have as the Superintendent of Schools is to hire, develop and retain the most effective instructional staff. I believe the purpose of school administration is to create the conditions under which a school staff can successfully educate all students. In a future blog post, I will describe what I believe those conditions are.
One thing I do not believe is that schools exist to meet adult needs. I value, respect and want to hire and retain staff members who understand and believe our job is to produce results with our students - whatever it takes. This is the type of person I would want teaching my child, so why would I expect anything less for your children?
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It is such a shame that our once nice community school that enjoyed great relations between all stakeholders has now become a hostile work environment for our teachers thanks to the bullying principal and enabling superintendent. Your blogs really do cover up the real you. If the parents sending kids to this school ever found out how miserable our teachers are because of you two administrators, they would cry tears. We have watched you run out some of the best teachers to ever walk these halls and be so disrespectful to them it is tragic. I can’t understand why the Board of Ed refuses to listen to teachers that have made their careers at AMS and have trusted their kids learning to them.
ReplyDeleteGreat post. As a teacher, I rely heavily on the line, "But is that in the best interest of the kids?" It's a line of reasoning that never fails me when debating what staff should be doing next. Also, whenever I am able to bring a student up to grade level in reading, I have also reduced their chances of teen pregnancy, juvenile hall, prison, drop-out, crime, gang affiliation. The list goes on and on. Effective teaching is perhaps the closest thing we may have to a panacea for so many of society's ills.
ReplyDeleteChris Bowen
Author of, "Our Kids: Building Relationships in the Classroom"
Wow. I do subscribe to the fact that it is the teachers who have the greatest influence on the educational developments of kids. What concerns me in your post my perception that you are threatening your teachers if the standardized test results don't show your required improvement. If this is my perception, I wonder how the teachers view it? When I read the first comment on this blog, I begin to wonder if there is something to that claim of hostile work environment.
ReplyDeleteI wrote a comment from a "Concerned Parent" a few days ago and I am not seeing it posted. I am now concerned that my suspicions are correct in that you are threatening the teachers with your current blog and the "Anonymous" blog above is accurate. Our teachers are too professional to give details. I will seek to understand more and will get involved. Hope I am wrong abou this.
ReplyDeleteI have read this post 4 times and I do not read anything threatening about it. Why is it wrong that a boss hold his employees accountable for a certain level of performance? Many teachers forget that they are not in charge and they DO have a boss. I hope that "Concerned Parent" does get involved because he/she will find out that there are many teachers in the district that are very happy and motivated by standards of excellence.
ReplyDeleteI agree with anonymous that teachers do have a boss and should be held accountable for their job performance. Shouldn't everyone? Let us also note that the administration has a boss, the school board. The fact that a "hostile work environment" was even brought up is disturbing to me as both a taxpayer and a parent. I hope the school board is making sure the school is a "safe environment" for all. The school board owes it to the taxpayers - checks and balances. If you have good management, accountability can be accomplished in a non-threatening way. Let's hope that is the case so we can be proud of our school community.
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