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Try a slogan for our time: 'It's the teacher, stupid'

Students succeed with better quality teachers

By Joseph DiSalvo

Students succeed with better quality teachers

In the 1992 presidential election, political strategist James Carville made this phrase historically significant: "It's the economy, stupid." A sign was placed on presidential candidate Bill Clinton's office in Little Rock, Ark., exclaiming the importance of the economy in winning the election. Let's wake up, America; the phrase we should be using in today's educational and political circles is, "It's the teacher, stupid."

Perhaps if we focused more on teachers and less on testing, all students would succeed while our economy grows.

Let's stipulate that quality education has something to do with content standards, accountability, curriculum, assessment, testing, teamwork between home and school, and quality administrators, but nothing is more important to the success of all children than the teacher.

The teacher builds the quality of our future one child at a time. It is the teacher who ensures the success of all her students as a result of the following:

* building excellent relationships;

* preparing quality lesson plans replete with objectives;

* becoming an expert on the content taught (or knowing where to find the answer);

* holding high expectations for all learners;

* creating the climate and classroom management where all students feel valued and challenged;

* consistently communicating with parents;

* making certain no student is allowed to fail;

* providing good feedback to the learner on how to progress.

We all have had the teacher who made a difference in our lives by believing in us while they taught us the content and lessons about life. Those teachers knew our interests, our weaknesses and strengths. They intuitively built on our strengths and strengthened the areas where we were weak. They rejoiced with us when we got to the next level of attainment. The teacher and student were in harmony in the learning process. It is a little like magic.

"It's the teacher, stupid," should be the phrase we should hang on every superintendent's door, district board room, in every corridor in Sacramento and in the halls of the U.S. Department of Education. Leaders should be sounding the clarion call that the teacher is an essential part of the plan to close the achievement gap and ensure success for every child.

New York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman wrote a few weeks back about a landmark 2004 publication, "Teaching at Risk: A Call to Action" by the Teaching Commission, chaired by IBM's former chairman Louis Gerstner Jr. The publication is about the critical need to increase the quality of our K-12 teachers while significantly raising their salaries. "All good schools have one thing in common--good teachers," is the first sentence in the introduction to the report.

The report continues: "Look around the world. In country after country, the most vibrant and stable economies draw their strength from a well-educated, highly skilled citizenry. This should serve as a reminder that teaching, our nation's most valuable profession, is vital to our continued economic well-being and civic stability." Hmm, maybe the next campaign phrase for the political party that is most desirous of winning should be, "It's the teacher and the economy, stupid." Yes, the two are inextricably related. A thriving economy needs at its core good schools, and good schools need good teachers.

Some of the most current research indicates what schools do matters significantly to the achievement of students--success is not simply a result of parents' income and education. And what matters most in the calculus is good teaching.

The commission's report highlights a study by Hanushek and two colleagues in which their findings indicated "the most effective teachers were able to boost their pupils' learning by a full grade level more than students taught by their least successful colleagues."

So how do we effectively attract and retain the millions of highly qualified teachers America's children will need in the next decade?

The commission had an answer to the vexing question--a new compact for teachers. It recognizes that in order to attract and retain the very best and brightest of America's college graduates, teacher pay must be increased substantially. Here is what they said: "Our new compact says not only that the nation must increase base pay for teachers, but also that teachers must be measured--and compensated--on the basis of their classroom performance, including academic gains made by students."

To accomplish the commission's vision will require new ways of thinking about a pay structure designed in the early 20th century. College graduates must see a career ladder with opportunities for career advancement, leadership and salaries at the top of the profession comparable to other top professions. "It's the teacher, stupid."

Joseph DiSalvo has been a teacher and principal in Santa Clara County for 32 years; he is also an adjunct professor of education at Santa Clara University. He can be reached at josephsds1@aol.com.