Hiring, Developing, and Evaluating for Excellence

  • Kent A. Farnsworth
Chapter

Abstract

The successes of teachers such as Jaime Escalante, celebrated in the 1988 film Stand and Deliver, and more recently Rafe Esquith of Teach Like Your Hair Is On Fire fame, demonstrate that talented, dedicated teachers working in even the worst of circumstances can produce remarkable results. Charles McClain, whose career in education progressed from K-12 teacher and administrator, to community college and university president, to state commissioner of higher education, later served as desegregation monitor during a major court-initiated effort to improve the failing Kansas City School District. During this period of oversight, McClain noted that one of the elementary schools in the district with student demographics very similar to other Kansas City schools had noticeably better performance on the court-approved student assessment evaluations. His personal review of factors that might account for these differences revealed that a dedicated principal had systematically eliminated weak teachers and replaced them with faculty with strong academic credentials and a passion for teaching. It is McClain’s view that teaching ability is strongly correlated with the academic rigor and performance of the teacher’s own education. He also affirms the mounting body of research that demonstrates that no amount of resource support, curriculum innovation, or administrative commitment compensates for the effects of good or bad teaching in the classroom.

Keywords

Student Achievement Student Performance Student Success Employment Protection Teacher Certification 
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
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Notes

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Copyright information

© Kent A. Farnsworth 2010

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  • Kent A. Farnsworth

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