A Big Error in How Policy Makers Think

As a result of inhabiting a different world than teachers, policymakers make a consequential error. They and a cadre of influentials confuse teachER quality with teachING quality, that is, the personal traits of teachers—dedicated, caring, gregarious, intellectually curious—produce student learning rather than the classroom setting and school structures. Both are important, of course, but policymakers and their influential followers have accentuated personal traits far more than the organizational and social context in which teachers teach daily. So if students score low on tests, then who the teachers are, their personal traits, credentials, and attitudes come under close scrutiny, rather than the age-graded school, regularities in daily practices that accompany this organization, neighborhood demography, workplace conditions, and resources that support teaching. The person overshadows the place.[i] In attributing far more weight to individual teacher traits rather than seriously…

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