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Emily and Bryan Hassel have an idea: Don't get too hung up on plans to make teachers better. Instead, figure out how to help the best teachers reach far more students. After all, they argue, the top 20 percent of teachers are three times as effective as the bottom 20 percent.

Try as they might, though, they cannot escape the need to support teachers through good old fashioned staff development, curriculum and assessment. It's time the education economists paid much closer attention to these critical areas, which are just so déclassé these days.

Of course, the Hassels' argument raises all sorts of questions. How do you identify the top 20 percent of teachers? Do we trust test scores? Will teachers stay in the top 20 percent from year to year? Are the "top" teachers good in every kind of school? Are they effective with every kind of student?

But the Hassels face an even bigger challenge. Their plan will require nothing short of a massive investment in all those things their fellow educonomists find oh-so tedious: Teacher training. New curricula. Much, much better tests. If we pursue the Hassels' brave new reforms the way we pursue most reforms--on the cheap--then we're going to be in a whole heap of trouble.

The Hassels, like so many of their ideological brethren, seem to believe that great teachers are born, not made. Hence their relatively dim view of staff development. (I've always found it curious that so many reformers who insist that every child ...

Story posted June 10, 2008

Results:
• The district tailors educational programs to students' diverse needs and interests
• Every student at the district's "Village School" for non-traditional high school students passed every Regents Exam in every subject

Great Neck Public Schools Superintendent Ronald Friedman doesn't like to play favorites, but one student at the 2007 North High School graduation made him especially proud. "Billy" had nearly dropped out of school near the end of his junior year. He wasn't going to pass a required math course, and the school's staff sensed that when faced with the prospect of attending summer school or repeating the course, Billy would likely give up.

Instead of sticking to the standard protocol, teachers and administrators collaborated to find a solution that would work for Billy. They created a summer tutorial he could complete at home. One teacher volunteered to meet with him periodically and wrote a special exam, which Billy passed. His coursework back on track, he returned to school in the fall and graduated on time. ...

Story posted April, 2008

Results:
• 83.3% of students now read at or above grade level, which is well above state average

A sign in the main office of Southside Primary School lists "protected reading times" for each grade level (for example, 8:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. for kindergarten). "No interruptions can be made to classes at these times," the sign warns.

Southside's vigilance when it comes to guarding classroom reading time is a reflection of a broader effort at the school to ensure that teachers have not just the time, but also the necessary skills, to help their students succeed. And, at Southside, success is measured according to one major objective: that 100 percent of students will be reading at or above grade level before leaving second grade. ...

Story posted April, 2008

Results:
• Participants math benchmark assessment scores improved by 17% from 2004 to 2005 and 9% from 2005-2006
• Math Essentials students on average outperformed grade-level students as a whole on the first two benchmark assessments of 2006-2007

The high schools in the Walled Lake Consolidated School District had a problem. Some students were scoring below proficiency on their 8^th grade standardized tests. Fueled by the conviction that all students can learn, and that high school is not too late to turn students' lives around, the district tried many strategies to address this challenge: It pulled students out of their grade level courses, subjected them to a computer-based intervention, and stretched a semester's worth of content into a year of instruction. Yet student performance data from these intervention programs showed no effect or, in some cases, even negative effects on student achievement. ...