Mr. Atherton is right, current research shows that student acheivement can
be accurrately measured as follows: 49% attributed to parent involvement,
about 42% teacher quality, and about 8% to class size. A top priority of
the district is currently to provide staff development in a way that is
shown to raise teacher quality. In the past year, Dr. Johnson has worked
to bring staff development to the classroom instead of remote course work
that is not very effective. She has done this by having mentor teachers,
teachers that have done an outstanding job with all types of students and
learning styles, take their skills, experience and expertise and work with
new and less experienced teachers in the classroom. These teachers have
been assigned to our most challenged schools, they tend to be those schools
with the highest poverty rates.
Many schools have established professional development centers (or PDC)
that have strong ties to specific colleges of education. New teachers can
intern at those schools and many of them come back as good full time
teachers to the same schools in which they interned. Henry H.S. is a great
example, that school was in the"pits" 7-8 years ago. They had huge
problems. The school administration took it on to put into place the PDC
and the results are very evident. This is a school with IB and Advanced
placement classes that are full, and was named as one of the top 500 high
schools in the country in a Newsweek article a short time back.
(Incidentally, so was Southwest).
Another school that has made great strides forward and has a high poverty
rate is Lincoln Elementary. But these results are not achieved overnight,
it takes 2-4 years of good leadership and strong commitment to professional
development to really turn things around. In the League of Women Voters
Middle School Study, it was found that the middle schools had made the
structural changes neccessary to increase student achievment, but that real
change had not occurred in teaching practices as much as was needed. The
way to that goal is through professional development. This is very much in
the control of the district and that is why it is a huge priority now.
That is why the Board is bringing in Education Trust to help us further
advance teacher quality in our district.
Children who are home schooled receive continous individualized attention,
one on one, or small group learning opportunities. So it would stand to
reason that the smaller the class size, the more likely a student is to
receive individualized attention, along with teacher quality, this is a
measurable factor in sucessful learning. Poverty is no reason or excuse
for student failure, teacher quality is the largest factor that the
district can directly affect. The district is working and aligning
resources to do just this.
Audrey Johnson
MPS BOE
10th ward
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