By Victoria Phetmisy
Is a good teacher hard to find?
Statistically, no. A good teacher is easy to find if you check their SAT scores, their resumes and then see if their students’ standardized test scores beat the average and close the gap. But a really good teacher—one that isn’t just perfect on paper, but is also effective in the classroom—is harder to seek out. No one can pinpoint what exactly makes a good teacher, if not their results from the students.
So the search begins. The Gates Foundation, a large proponent for education reform, has dedicated $2.6 million towards finding what exactly makes a good, effective teacher. The study, called the Measures of Effective Teaching (MET), will last two years, beginning with the 2009 school year, with the goal to figure out how to measure the effectiveness of a teacher without having to rely on the performance results from the students’ standardized test scores.
This study is going beyond just measuring test scores. They realize that it is going to be hard to take into consideration what all a teacher does in the classroom. They’ve upped the ante by asking for volunteer teachers to sign up their classrooms to be observed by way of videotape, their students’ test scores and also by taking test themselves.
These volunteer teachers will receive a $1,500 stipend—an incentive for them to join. The study is seeking out 1,000 different teachers from 100 different schools in many areas across the country. In hopes of raising the level of achievement in our schools everywhere, teachers are asked to participate knowing that they will also have access to their own videos, test scores, surveys and performance evaluations. Since the project has started, the number of participants has leaped to nearly 3,700 teachers from a number of districts nationwide.
But just because a teacher wants to participate and signs up, does not mean they will be included in the project. The criteria for being accepted to the project, as stated on the United Federation of Teachers’ Web site, is the following:
• The principal must agree to participate
• At least 6 teachers must agree to participate
• Participating teachers must teach the following grades/subjects:
• English – Grades 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9
• Math – Grades 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and Integrated Algebra (Grade 9)
• Living Environment – Grade 9
• For each grade/subject area combination, at least three teachers must participate
Their goal, as stated on the MET Project Web site, “is to help educators and policymakers identify and support good teaching by improving the quality of information available about teacher practice.”
All the data collected will be made public and available to the districts as long as the teacher’s name is excluded or kept hidden. The project will take into full consideration the context in which a good teacher is effective in hopes of stationing more and more effective teacher across school districts in need nationwide.
With this project, hope for younger students continue to rise. The search for a good teacher for them is definitely on its way to being a success.
