Online Universities Weblog

A recent study showed that being assigned to three years of effective teaching compared to being assigned to three years of poor teaching can lead to over 50
percentile point differences in student achievement. This result holds whether your child goes to school in the most affluent or poorest community.

In my studies of Arizona teachers, 46 percent did not produce student achievement gains. When I observed classroom teaching for over 440 hours, I found that 38 percent of teachers implemented teaching methods that actually discourage learning.

All of this research led me to the question of what schools are doing to ensure that every child is assigned an effective teacher. Unfortunately, the answer is very little. A report from the National Association of Secondary School Principals stated that the vast majority of administrators spend less than 10% of their time in classrooms. On top of that teachers rarely receive in class coaching, advice, and guidance from the best teachers in the school, and they are almost never provided time to meet during school hours with other teachers with a focus on improving their instruction. Instead, good and bad teachers are left to toil alone.

Since we cannot rely on our schools to support or police effective teaching, perhaps the last bastion of hope is parents. If parents started Grading Their
Children's Teachers the school system may be forced to change. To learn what makes a good teacher, and more importantly how to work with schools to get effective teachers for your child, read Grading Your Child's Teacher: A Parent's Guide to Teaching Quality.