What Does Make a Great Teacher?
After my youngest son’s back-to-school visit last fall, I had a kick to my step. He had a great teacher. I knew it. I had no hard, research-based evidence to stake such a claim. I had not seen a teacher’s award, instruction certification, or Ivy League diploma. Gains in test scores from last year’s class were not on view, nor were their success stories. I’d simply listened to the way his teacher spoke about her class and that had me convinced; my son had an outstanding teacher.
Yesterday, I read an article in The Atlantic that addressed a difficult question: What makes a great teacher? The question is not novel. In fact, it’s a question whose answer President Barack Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan believe holds a key for education reform. As The Atlantic points outs, under their $4.3 billion “Race to the Top” program, the new administration is shifting the focus away from school accountability to teacher accountability, asking states to identify great teachers, figure out how they got that way, and then create more of them.
But as Atlantic journalist Amanda Ripley also points out, finding a quantifiable answer to that question is by no means easy. To get one, she looked at work done by the nonprofit, Teach for America. As part of its efforts to improve the selection and performance of its own teachers, Teach for America tracked hundreds of thousands of students to determine why some teachers propelled students ahead and others did not. According to Ripley, the study’s findings point to six great teacher traits. Great teachers tend to set big goals for their students; they perpetually look for ways to improve their performance; they avidly recruit parents and students into their process; they maintain focus; they plan exhaustively and purposefully; and they work relentlessly.
Even before this school year was in full swing, I saw almost all those teacher traits on display at my son’s back-to-school night. One trait, though, stood out. A twenty-year-plus veteran, his teacher was describing her fourth grade curriculum and the books they would read this year. She was animated, energized at the prospect of a new school year, encouraging parents to read their children’s books. “Now, I’m still deciding,” she announced. “I may do something totally different this year. Swap a new project into the spring. I’m not sure. But if I can get it to work.” Her voice trailed off. She smiled. Her excitement was palpable. Great things awaited. She could see them for our children just ahead.
Up to that point, I had been to many back-to-school presentations but rarely had I seen a teacher so assured yet reflective, so open to change yet so filled with conviction. “If she’s still tweaking and adjusting after all these years,” I later told my husband, “she’s going to be a great teacher.”
I was right to presume. Our son has not only loved this year, but he seems to have made strong gains. His teacher is demanding, but our son welcomes the challenges she presents. When I ask him why he likes her so much, he says because she’s honest. “She will tell you if she doesn’t like something or if you can do a better job. She trusts you,” he says. “And if she says you have done a good job, you can believe her. You know she means it.” And then it strikes me. Perhaps that is principle number seven, the trait I’ve seen in every great teacher I’ve had. Belief.
January 11, 2010
(Author Elizabeth Wilcox is founder of mykidsupport.com, author of The Mom Economy (Berkley, 2003) and a longtime journalist focused on parenting, children and women's issues.)