1. Teachers Matter Joe Adams, Ph. D
Teachers Matter Joe Adams, Ph.D. Public Affairs Research Council of Alabama
The Three R’s – and what they mean
Scottsboro rotary club, September 16, 2015

2. We invest $3 billion a year in teachers.

3. Rigor, Relevance and Relationships

4. Rigor: New Curriculum & Assessments

5. Our baseline results (2014)

6. Teacher Experience matters

9. Teacher Shortage

10. Success Stories: No Overnight Success
“…it took Escalante eight years to build the math program that achieved what “Stand and Deliver” shows: a class of 18 who pass with flying colors. During this time, he convinced the principal, Henry Gradillas, to raise the school’s math requirements; he designed a pipeline of courses to prepare Garfield’s students for AP calculus; he became department head and hand-selected top teachers for his feeder courses; he and Gradillas even influenced the area junior high schools to offer algebra. In other words, to achieve his AP students’ success, he transformed the school’s math department. Escalante himself emphasized in interviews that no student went the way of the film’s Angel: from basic math in one year to AP calculus in the next.”

11. Examples of Change: George Hall 3rd Grade Math

12. Examples of Change: George Hall 4th Grade Math

13. Examples of Change: George Hall 5th Grade Math

14. Examples of Change: George Hall 3rd Grade Reading

15. Examples of Change: George Hall 4th Grade Reading

16. Examples of Change: George Hall 5th Grade Reading

17. What is Relevance?
Students understand how what they are learning is related to their goals, to jobs, to knowing how to do something.
Relevance is a lesson to be learned.

18. Relevance: Future Earnings

19. Relevance: Economic Demands

20. Relevance: Global Competitiveness

21. Test Scores and Long-Run Economic Growth: Endangering Prosperity (2012)

22. Years of Schooling vs. Test Scores: Endangering Prosperity (2012)

23. Educational Gains Precede Economic Gains: Endangering Prosperity (2012)

24. Relationships
“These countries didn’t aim to be among the best in the world but instead were trying to offer the best for their own children and the parents of those children. The irony is that today none of the countries that have aimed to be the best has succeeded in becoming the best, and none of the current successful school systems ever intended to be on the top.”
Sahlberg, Pasi ( ). Finnish Lessons 2.0: What Can the World Learn from Educational Change in Finland?, Second Edition (Series on School Reform) (Kindle Locations ). Teachers College Press. Kindle Edition.

25. Caring for Every Child
“Almost half of Finnish 16-year-olds, when they leave compulsory education, have had some sort of special education, personalized help, or individual guidance during their time in school.”
Sahlberg, Pasi ( ). Finnish Lessons 2.0: What Can the World Learn from Educational Change in Finland?, Second Edition (Series on School Reform) (Kindle Locations ). Teachers College Press. Kindle Edition.

26. English

27. Reading

28. Math

29. Science

30. All Four

31. What the Best College Teachers Do
First, the best teachers tended to look for and appreciate the individual value of each student. Rather than separating them into winners and losers, geniuses and dullards, good students and bad, they looked for the abilities that any person brought to the table.
Bain, Ken ( ). What the Best College Teachers Do (p. 72). Harvard University Press. Kindle Edition.

32. What the Best College Teachers Do
Second, and this is the first direct connection to the research on stereotypes, they had great faith in students’ ability to achieve.
Bain, Ken ( ). What the Best College Teachers Do (p. 72). Harvard University Press. Kindle Edition.

33. What the Best College Teachers Do
Third, we noticed that the people we selected generally had a strong sense of commitment to the academic community and not just to personal success in the classroom. They saw their own efforts as a small part of a larger educational enterprise rather than as an opportunity to display personal prowess. In their minds, they were mere contributors to a learning environment that demanded attention from a fellowship of scholars.
Bain, Ken ( ). What the Best College Teachers Do (p. 20). Harvard University Press. Kindle Edition.

34. What the Best College Teachers Do
They interacted with students and encouraged and allowed them to interact with one another and with the material. They pulled each person in the room into a dialogue, offering gestures and body language that conveyed their desire to reach out to each student.
Bain, Ken ( ). What the Best College Teachers Do (p. 118). Harvard University Press. Kindle Edition.

35. What the Best College Teachers Do
1. Create a Natural Critical Learning Environment
2. Get Their Attention and Keep It
3. Start with the Students Rather Than the Discipline
4. Seek Commitments
5. Help Students Learn outside of Class
6. Engage Students in Disciplinary Thinking
7. Create Diverse Learning Experiences
Bain, Ken ( ). What the Best College Teachers Do (p. 116). Harvard University Press. Kindle Edition.