Inspirational Teaching

Steven Farr of Teach for America published a 2010 book called Teaching as Leadership  Amanda Ripley profiles Farr's book and his findings in an Atlantic Monthly article, "What Makes a Good Teacher." For ten years, Teach for America has been tracking data on hundreds of thousands of students. These students taught by it 7,000 teachers are mostly in poor urban districts.  During that time, they have found that some teachers are far more effective than the norm in raising student achievement as measured by standardized test scores. While standardized test scores are not at all the best measure of student learning, this was the measurement available to Farr. Teaching as Leadership highlights and seeks to explain the specific traits and practices of the high performing teachers.

Far identifies five success factors:

1. Set big goals for your students
2. Recruit students and families into the process
3. Maintain the focus on learning and tie all activities to your goals
4. Plan exhaustively, working backwards from your goals
5. Work relentlessly to overcome the barriers to your goals.

The finding that some teachers are much more effective than others links well to the general findings on expertise in any domain from brain surgery and rocket science to sales and sports. Farr’s findings about goals, planning, and communication connect well to the general research on leadership.  In fact, all five of these steps grow out of the goal setting step, not only for the students but for the teacher as well.

Though not listed, the teacher’s own goals are an implicit foundation for the planning step, the focus on learning step, and the working relentlessly to overcome barriers.  And you can only recruit others into a process where you can spell out the goals and the personal benefits.  The process of translating a teacher’s vision into clear learning outcomes for students is the essence of planning and goal setting for a teacher.  Sharing that vision in a way so compelling that it becomes a personal vision and a set of goals for each student is the essence of teacher leadership.