I’ve always thought it was somewhat obvious. Charisma, passion for the subject and humor are all important. But experience, above all, must contribute to the quality of teaching. If you’re in the game long enough, you can improve a curriculum, become more familiar with the subject, develop your personal teaching style…
Makes sense, right?
Well, I read a paper out of Harvard that suggests otherwise. The study by Matthew M. Chingos and Paul E. Peterson, “It’s easier to pick a good teacher than to train one,” was published in the Economics of Education Review in 2011. It followed students in Florida for eight years to determine whether teacher effectiveness was influenced by factors like university attended, advanced degrees and teaching experience.
To evaluate teaching experience, Chingos and Peterson looked at three different models using reading and math score data captured over eight years. All support one conclusion: over time, increasing experience does not mean increasing effectiveness. It appears that experience initially improves effectiveness, especially in the first year of teaching. However, once effectiveness peaks, it can start to slowly decline – as soon as five years in, according to one model.
Okay, so experience doesn’t necessarily determine teaching quality. That’s a first. But it does add to what we already know: that education is a complicated moving puzzle.
Now, we must acknowledge some of the limitations of this study. Firstly, it bases effectiveness on standardized statewide reading and math test score data. Many, like Dr. Emma Garcia of the Economic Policy Institute, argue that this prevalent method ignores many of the “non-cognitive skills” essential for development. While this opens up a whole new conversation about creativity and engagement in education, test scores still function as an objective basis of teaching effectiveness. Many of Huron’s statistics and rankings, for example, are still determined through statewide and national tests. So we can only truly conclude that this concerns teacher effectiveness at knowledge acquisition.
Also, this study follows students from the fourth through eighth grades. Effectiveness of elementary and middle school teachers over time will not match exactly to that of high school teachers.
Still, this is one of the largest and most comprehensive studies of its kind, given that it followed so many students for eight years. So seeing that experience is not proportional to effectiveness is eye-opening and informative – especially at Huron, where there’s been a lot of change in the past few years. The first DP cohort graduated just two months ago. Both the DP and CP continue to expand class offerings. There are more students than ever taking online classes through A2Virtual. Last fall, over 12 new teachers were hired. This fall, we will see seven more new teachers, not including a new DP coordinator.
I often hear parents and students discuss how experienced teachers are. If experience is not strictly correlated to effectiveness, the conversation should shift.
I remember being stopped in the hallway last year by a woman I didn’t recognize. She turned out to be a mother who had just moved from North Carolina and was touring the district high schools with her son. She asked me whether Huron’s teachers were any good.
I blinked. “Well, of course our teachers are good!”
As an afterthought, however, I started wondering. What defines any single one of our teachers as “good” in the first place?
Steven Farr is the Chief Knowledge Officer of Teach for America, a nonprofit working to combat educational inequity. He said in an interview with the Atlantic that great teachers usually set “big goals for their students.” Among other traits, they planned extensively and thoughtfully, worked with families and were constantly striving to improve their effectiveness.
Chris Lehman, former Manhattan high school teacher and founding principal of the Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia, came up with a similar list. His “12 qualities great teachers share” boiled down to passion (for the subject, for the students and for teaching itself), humility, persistence, reflection, understanding and a willingness to adapt.
Clearly, what makes a good teacher is a multifaceted, holistic issue. Luckily, knowing that student-teacher interaction, parental involvement and willingness to admit mistakes and change are important traits, both students and teachers can work together to improve education as a whole. We can improve in the best of ways.