Great Teaching

Steven Farr of Teach for America has just published a new book called Teaching as Leadership which is profiled an The Atlantic Monthly article, What Makes a Great Teacher by Amanda Ripley. For ten years, Teach for America has been tracking data on hundreds of thousands of students, mostly in poor urban districts, taught by its currently 7,300 teachers. During that time they have found that some teachers are far more effective than the norm in raising student achievement as measured by standardized test scores. Teaching as Leadership tried to highlight and explain the specific traits and practices of the high performing teachers.

Far identifies five success factors:

1. Set big goals for your students
2. Recruit students and families into the process
3. Maintain the focus on learning and tie all activities to your goals
4. Plan exhaustively, working backwards from your goals
5. Work relentlessly to overcome the barriers to your goals.

The finding that some teachers are much more effective than others links very well to the general findings on expertise in any domain from brain surgery and rocket science to sales and sports. The focus on goals, planning, and communication tie well to the general research on leadership. Now if we can only implement these precepts on a wide basis.