A starting point
I haven’t had a chance to get through the much discussed upcoming NYT Magazine feature, Building a Better Teacher, but in the meantime I wanted to highlight a relatively simple takeaway from Justin Cohen on the piece:
The quality of teaching matters … a lot. And it’s differential.
Figuring out exactly how to find, train, and retain the best teachers possible is a critical and incredibly complex task. However, if we can simply agree on the above statement, I think people on all sides can (and must) ultimately come together and figure out the details. There are already several reform union contracts (Camino Nuevo and Green Dot are two great examples) that are helping to drive parts of this conversation forward, as well as positive movement in Philadelphia that we noted a few days ago. However, if we all can’t agree on that as a starting point – that teaching quality matters and its differential – then it seems to me that we have quite a bigger hill to climb.
Very excited to read the whole piece, and will definitely post my favorite excerpts in the next day or two.
