Report: ‘Top-third’ teachers essential to U.S. success
Study explores how more selective teacher prep programs and higher salaries could boost U.S. competitiveness
By Laura Devaney, Managing Editor
Read more by Laura Devaney
Skilled teachers are essential to student success.
Improving teacher effectiveness has risen to the top of national education priorities, but the key to attracting, training, and retaining truly effective teachers might lie in the “top-third” concept, which seeks to recruit students who perform in the top third of their academic discipline into the teaching profession.
“Closing the talent gap: Attracting and retaining top-third graduates to careers in teaching,” by Byron Auguste, Paul Kihn, and Matt Miller of McKinsey and Co., examines teaching programs and strategies in some of the world’s best-performing nations and seeks to outline how adapting those strategies for practice in the United States might reap enormous benefits for the U.S. economy.
While the world’s top school systems have dedicated approaches to attracting, retaining, and supporting teachers, “the U.S. does not take a strategic or systematic approach to nurturing teacher talent,” the authors state. “We have failed to attract, develop, reward, or retain outstanding professional teaching talent on a consistent basis.”
The report “shines a light on the single factor that impacts student success in schools the most, and that’s the quality of teachers,” said Louis Malfaro, vice president of the American Federation of Teachers and president of Education Austin. It also reveals the “radically different approach” to how teachers are prepared in the highest-performing countries versus how they are prepared in the U.S., he added.
There exists in the U.S. a thought that “teachers don’t need to be smart, they just need to love children. That’s not necessarily a pathway to being effective,” said Kate Walsh, president of the National Council on Teacher Quality. “[We must] persuade districts and states that this is what is good for children.”
Walsh said there tends to be a strong measure of anti-elitism in the U.S., which might eschew highly selective teacher preparation programs on the theory that a teacher does not necessarily have to be highly trained.
“This challenges that assumption, and I think it’s a healthy challenge,” she added.
A global perspective
Top-performing nations recruit 100 percent of their new teachers from the top third of academic performers. In the U.S., only 23 percent of teachers come from the top third of their college class—and in high-poverty schools, this figure is only 14 percent.
These other countries treat education as a highly selective profession, and after recruiting from the top third, they screen those selected students for qualities they believe are indicative of teaching success, such as perseverance and communications skills.
The world’s top-performing school systems in Singapore, Finland, and South Korea recruit, develop, and retain what the report called the “top third+,” or students from the top third of their academic classes from all disciplines, not just students enrolled in teacher preparation programs.
Teacher recruitment in South Korea, Singapore, and Finland is rigorous and highly selective, the authors note, and some programs are government-funded, requiring little or no out-of-pocket expense on students’ behalf.
Singapore offers competitive salaries with retention bonuses at recurring intervals. Its teacher training program accepts roughly 1 in 8 applicants. All teachers have weekly opportunities for professional collaboration and receive 100 hours of paid professional development per year.
Finland’s extremely competitive teaching selection process requires teachers to obtain a master’s degree in a five-year program, and applicants are generally drawn from the top 20 percent of high school graduates. Only 1 in 10 applicants is accepted to become a teacher, and the government pays for teachers’ graduate-level training and a living stipend.
South Korea places deep respect in the teaching profession and offers one of the highest teaching salaries in the world; its “relatively large” class sizes of roughly 35 students on average help teachers there earn salaries equivalent to between $55,000 and $155,000 per year. Teacher turnover is just 1 percent each year.
morrisboyd
September 21, 2010 at 10:11 am
Many Districts hire based on nepotism, local-connections, and at the high school level ability to coach. Educators are required to perform duties such as: hallway monitor, cafeteria supervisor, clerical duties, etc. during the school day. Inner-city teachers are not given access to secure transit or parking. Educators are not given sufficient mentoring or ability to collaborate with other educators. Schools do not hire sufficient tech reps and educational tools very often do not work. Schools will very often place Special Education students into a regular class without “appropriate support”.
I could go on, and on………….
morrisboyd
September 21, 2010 at 10:11 am
Many Districts hire based on nepotism, local-connections, and at the high school level ability to coach. Educators are required to perform duties such as: hallway monitor, cafeteria supervisor, clerical duties, etc. during the school day. Inner-city teachers are not given access to secure transit or parking. Educators are not given sufficient mentoring or ability to collaborate with other educators. Schools do not hire sufficient tech reps and educational tools very often do not work. Schools will very often place Special Education students into a regular class without “appropriate support”.
I could go on, and on………….
qcscied
September 21, 2010 at 6:37 pm
Here is my comment as a blog post:
http://educationisnotarace.blogspot.com/2010/09/tell-me-something-new.html
qcscied
September 21, 2010 at 6:37 pm
Here is my comment as a blog post:
http://educationisnotarace.blogspot.com/2010/09/tell-me-something-new.html
brainsong
October 18, 2010 at 7:49 pm
Why are more of the top one third not banging on the door of the colleges of education? The unique opportunities that are afforded graduates of the College of Education should be enticement enough!
Very few positions in the professional sector recieve the negative press and constant belittling by people outside the profession as do teachers. The salary is pitiful indeed and teachers must supplement their employers by purchasing materials necessary to make their job interesting to the clients they serve.
When given a task to perform, the teacher, unlike most professionals, is assumed to be illequipped to master the task without being given mamdates as to how it should be accomplished. Though not solicited, teachers are given opinions, suggestions, and orders from their administration, parents, organizations, politicians, bystanders, and students.
Teachers are not given credit for the miracles they perform everyday and are blamed for the disasters for which they played no part. They are accused of entering the profession for the joy of getting a summer break, though it has become too short to even take the required coursework needed to stay current. Though what is current is often merely recycled, to those who know nothing of educating children it may seem new. Education is a profession where only the educated are eliminated from making policy decisions. The more educated you become, the less desireable you are as an employee. The greater you loyalty to an employer, the happier they are to see you leave. Fresh out of school and no experience makes for an ideal new hire.
Indeed, the uniqueness of the profession may lead one to the answer to why more of the top one third choose not to become members of this great profession.
We don’t need Superman or Tony Danza. We need people in charge who care about the future of our children instead of how they will win the next election. We need people of vision who are grounded in reality but hold on to that ray of hope. We need teachers to be put in charge of reforming schools. Then you would see the top one third banging at the classroom door!
brainsong
October 18, 2010 at 7:49 pm
Why are more of the top one third not banging on the door of the colleges of education? The unique opportunities that are afforded graduates of the College of Education should be enticement enough!
Very few positions in the professional sector recieve the negative press and constant belittling by people outside the profession as do teachers. The salary is pitiful indeed and teachers must supplement their employers by purchasing materials necessary to make their job interesting to the clients they serve.
When given a task to perform, the teacher, unlike most professionals, is assumed to be illequipped to master the task without being given mamdates as to how it should be accomplished. Though not solicited, teachers are given opinions, suggestions, and orders from their administration, parents, organizations, politicians, bystanders, and students.
Teachers are not given credit for the miracles they perform everyday and are blamed for the disasters for which they played no part. They are accused of entering the profession for the joy of getting a summer break, though it has become too short to even take the required coursework needed to stay current. Though what is current is often merely recycled, to those who know nothing of educating children it may seem new. Education is a profession where only the educated are eliminated from making policy decisions. The more educated you become, the less desireable you are as an employee. The greater you loyalty to an employer, the happier they are to see you leave. Fresh out of school and no experience makes for an ideal new hire.
Indeed, the uniqueness of the profession may lead one to the answer to why more of the top one third choose not to become members of this great profession.
We don’t need Superman or Tony Danza. We need people in charge who care about the future of our children instead of how they will win the next election. We need people of vision who are grounded in reality but hold on to that ray of hope. We need teachers to be put in charge of reforming schools. Then you would see the top one third banging at the classroom door!