By Linda Perlstein

回想一下你最好的老师——那些让你学到最多东西的人. 很有可能，他们对所教的科目了解很多. They were well-organized and could hold their students' attention. But what else made them great?

It's possible — probable, 甚至你所见过的两位最有成效的教师对待工作的方式也截然不同. Maybe one was easygoing, the other strict. 一个问你兴趣爱好，另一个只问你代数.

It's also one of the most important. 在当前网易彩票app教育改革的辩论中，一个不断重复的声音是，在学校内部衡量的东西比其他任何东西都多, the quality of teachers matters. 根据斯坦福大学经济学家埃里克·哈努舍克的研究, 从9月到6月，学生从一流老师那里学到的东西比从底层老师那里学到的要多.

Irvin Scott, deputy director of education at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, says that everyone can explain how a given teacher impacted them, 但网易彩票app对其原因的解释——通常是基于情感和怀旧——是不够的.

“如果教师的有效性对人们的生活机会如此重要,” Scott says, “then we need to stop relying on what people feel, 并得出一个更明确的答案，网易彩票app什么是好的教学.”

Michaela Miller is wholly invested in crafting that answer. Miller, 她在2009年获得了网易彩票下载的校长证书, 正在为华盛顿州公共教育监督办公室指导一个教师评估的试点项目. 几十年来，教师评估的效用一直有限. They come infrequently, they include little meaningful feedback, and they typically conclude that everyone's fine. (According to “The Widget Effect,” a 2009 study by the New Teacher Project, 在被调查的12个学区中，只有不到1%的教师被评为不满意，其中一些学区的学生成绩很差.)

In Washington's pilot, 15个地区正在使用一种更全面的教师评估工具，该工具基于被认为对良好教学至关重要的具体做法. 例如，老师是根据他们问学生的问题来评判的. It's not enough to ask kids to parrot knowledge; great teachers require them to think critically and apply it.

Michaela Miller, who is working to improve teacher evaluations in Washington state, 她说，SPU的教授们帮助她理解了如何为变革建立共识——“与员工建立深厚的关系”, with the school, and with
the community." Photo by Luke Rutan.

寻找良好教学的经验证据也是有效教学措施的核心, a $45 million Gates Foundation effort. 全国七个城市学区的研究人员正在研究从录像课程到学生调查再到学生作业(考试成绩等)的一切，以确定哪些品质和方法是那些学生有所提高的老师所共有的.

Once the elements of good teaching are identified, the next step — not just for districts in the Gates pilot, 但对于所有致力于提高教师素质的人来说，就是用这些知识来帮助教师成长. Right now, 很少有学区将教师的专业发展建立在个人的具体缺陷上, but many hope to do so.

“这项工作有可能在未来很长一段时间内改变教学行业,” Miller says.

Despite those efforts, 有很大的压力，主要以一个标准来评判教师:他们的学生在州考试中的进步或缺乏. 一些州已经开始将50%的教师评价(以及由此产生的绩效工资)建立在这些测试的基础上.

斯坦福大学教师教育助理教授大卫·丹顿(David Denton)说，学生测试
scores “have a place in the educational system. But they're only one type of measure of the
types of learning humans are capable of.”

将教师的价值建立在网易彩票app的可量化指标上, he says, 可能无法解释影响教师质量的许多变量, including the amount of time teachers have to plan lessons, the number of students in their classes, and the complex social needs of their students.

To see if teachers are effective, Denton argues, 网易彩票app还应该看看他们是否在向学生灌输对这门学科的热爱, and whether their students are developing creative abilities.

Ask Jay Maebori, 他是肯特(华盛顿)学区的一名高中英语教师，2003年在网易彩票下载获得教学硕士学位, what makes a good teacher, 他提到的主要特质是“想要成长的意愿”.” Maebori, who was named Washington State Teacher of the Year in 2011, 他还说，与学生建立人际关系是至关重要的, to engage them based on their own expertise and interests. At year's end, he
says, he hopes that they think, “He cared about his subject matter, 但比起他对我的关心，他更关心他的主题.”

Aspiring teacher Megan Holter, a senior at SPU, 今年冬天，她在西雅图的一所小学完成了学生教学. 网易彩票app优秀的教学，她注意到一件事:每次她看到一群学生似乎都很有成效, 它是由一位具有出色课堂管理技能的老师领导的. This looked very different from teacher to teacher: One was firm, with students working in their desks quietly; another had the kids moving around and working in groups, but always
with purpose and order.

“这是老师最自信的方法和那个特定班级的孩子们需要的结合,” Holter says.

It's clear to her that if she is to be a good teacher, 她必须找到适合自己的平衡点，而不仅仅是她的学生是坐着还是走动, but what they need from her each day.

“The further into my student teaching I got, the more I could read the kids and adjust to what they needed,” she said. “但这需要20周以上的时间才能掌握.”

当然，教学的核心是确保学生学习所学的内容. But, Holter is coming to understand, some kids need more than that: to learn manners, to feel safe, to enjoy going to school. 一位好老师，她说，以任何考试都无法衡量的方式来教导学生的性格.

琳达·珀尔斯坦是西雅图的一名自由编辑和作家，她写过两本书， Tested and Not Much Just Chillin'.