Three First Steps Toward Effective Teaching

The National Council of Teacher Quality has given Virginia a D+ for teacher quality, notes Christian Braunlich in a report for the Virginia-based Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy. The state is also poor at identifying poor and effective teachers, the NCTQ says, and has a widening achievement gap between rich and poor children and white and minority children, Braunlich notes. Three strategies to address the lack of teaching quality will improve the state’s workforce and economy: matching teachers to student achievement data the state already collects, requiring effectiveness to be the top criteria when evaluating a teacher, and making tenure harder to get and contingent on annual reviews.