Frequently Asked Questions
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What is the definition of “teacher effectiveness?” |
Our definition is this: An effective teacher ensures that each child learns at least a year’s worth of knowledge for every year spent in the classroom.
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Do we really need 25,000 new teachers in the next 10 years? If so, how can you possibly train that many in such a short time? |
There are currently more than 50,000 teachers in the three states. Within the next 10 years, half of them will leave teaching or retire. That means that we really do need 25,000 new teachers in the next 10 years, and the Bush Foundation’s goal is to partner with teacher preparation programs in Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota to train, prepare and place those new, effective teachers.
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| How are you going to recruit the best people to be teachers if fundamental changes aren’t made to how teachers are paid and to the learning environment of the schools in which they work?
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This is a very important issue. The new teachers who come out of our partners’ teacher preparation programs will be guaranteed by those partners, so schools will be confident they can make an investment in hiring that teacher. At the same time, we are asking the schools to guarantee that they will support the new teachers with an environment that enables them to be successful. Schools that don’t want to enter into this type of guarantee arrangement will have to find teachers from other programs. Over time, we believe the increased educational achievement of students in classrooms led by teachers who are trained in this new way will be all the evidence schools will need to do whatever is needed to attract these new, effective teachers to their schools.
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| How can you tell if a teacher is effective? |
An effective teacher assures that every student gains at least a year’s of knowledge for every year in the classroom. While there is currently no measurement of student achievement that is consistent across the three states, we are working with researchers to identify those measures and develop them into an assessment tool that teachers across the three states will be able to use several times a year to ensure that their teaching is having the desired outcome—that students are gaining at least a year’s worth of knowledge for every year spent in the classroom and that they are on track to earn a degree after high school.
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| Is improving teacher effectiveness the only way to increase student achievement? What about factors like poverty or lack of parental involvement—don’t those also affect students negatively? |
Many factors affect student achievement including the curriculum, length of the school day/year, pre-K readiness, parental engagement, etc. Research shows [need citation] that effective teaching is the most important school-related factor in increasing educational achievement. Many other programs and foundations are working on other factors that have an impact on a student’s ability to show up in the classroom ready to learn. We think the best way we can help students is by making sure an effective teacher is in the classroom ready to meet the student at whatever achievement level he or she has already reached, then use all his or her considerable teaching skill to ensure the student continues to gain at least one year of knowledge for every year spent in the classroom.
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| You say you’re going to increase the percentage of students on track to earn a degree post-high school by 50 percent. What number are you starting from? |
When we originally set the goal in 2008, only about 25 percent of students across Minnesota and the Dakotas earned a degree after high school. That figure was based on data from the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education. Our goal is to increase that base percentage by at least 50 percent, or have at least 37.5% of students on track to earn a degree after high school by 2020.
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| Is the teacher training different for pre-K vs. high school teachers? |
Curriculum content is different for teachers who work with students at different age levels, as is the pedagogy—the art and science of teaching. The effectiveness measures the Foundation is developing, however, will serve teachers at all levels so a pre-K teacher is as effective at teaching the ABCs as the high school math teacher is at teaching juniors trigonometry.
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| What is your strategy for eliminating the achievement disparities among different ethnic groups? |
Research shows that effective teachers are able to improve outcomes for all students, raise the achievement of low-performing students and close the achievement gap. In addition, the tools the Foundation is creating for teachers to use in assessing their students several times a year will mean that teachers will be able to spot more quickly students who are falling behind and giving them the additional attention and support they need to improve.
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| Some school districts are in poor communities and can’t afford the educational systems that rich communities can. Do you have a plan for helping students in those poor communities? |
We are working with partners whose plans will encompass the unique challenges faced by schools in poor and rural communities. These plans will be detailed in the coming months. Whether rich or poor, any community’s investment in effective teachers for its children will pay back benefits that will change the community. The future vitality of cities and towns across Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota will depend greatly on the ability of its future workers to compete in a global economy. And research shows that obtaining a degree beyond high school graduation has a measurable impact on the earning ability of each worker.
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| Our school district has students that speak many different languages. Isn’t that a hurdle teacher effectiveness can’t address? |
Effective teachers are effective for all students, including using techniques to communicate with students whose first language is not English. The growing diversity of our schools is a fact and an opportunity—it allows us to engage in the increasingly global village that our communities have become. Just as the new Asian, African and Latin restaurants down the block add variety to our weekly meat-and-potatoes menu, the children of those immigrants offer their teachers and fellow students the opportunity to try something new, gain a new competency and embrace diversity. Such familiarity will serve students well in their global economic and cultural future.
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| My children’s school could use better teachers. How can we hire one of these effective teachers? |
We think that once the word gets out of how these new, effective teachers are engaging their students and driving student achievement, every school will want to hire them. If your school wants to be on the cutting edge of investing in these new, effective teachers, the effort starts with your school. Encourage your school to investigate our teacher preparation partners, talk to other parents about the Foundation’s goal and strategy, and lead the drive to ensure that your child is one whose future will be brighter because he or she had an effective teacher. |
