Please check Education forum for discussion of this post

[teacher gal]

It is true and I would totally concur that the most important IN SCHOOL factor impacting student achievement is the quality of the teacher. Believe me I am not trying to diminish the importance of that. However, this is very deceptive. The impact of a teacher, while very important, pales in comparison to the horrendous impact of poverty and its deprivations, children born to drug/alcohol addicted parents, children living amidst gangs and violence, children neglected and a abused, and so on.

I do not trust the Education Trust at all, a so-called 'progressive' think tank that regularly disparages our schools and the teachers actually on the ground. The Ed Trust disseminates skewed and misleading reports, while simultaneously presenting themselves as a civil rights organization. The very policies they have long endorsed and supported are in fact now wreaking havoc in our schools and harming most the very students they purport to be working on behalf of. I can send you much info on that if you are interested.

In the meantime, here are just a couple of reports about the Ed Trust that I sincerely hope you will read:

http://epsl.asu.edu/epru/documents/EPSL-06...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gerald-brace...

In addition, the very policies Ed Trust has pushed actually serve to PREVENT high quality teachers from even wanting to teach or remain in urban war zone schools where they are so often demoralized, blamed and sanctioned for conditions out of their control - this is what is happening under the present high-stakes testing regime, where life altering consequences are attached to children's standardized test scores. Rather than badly needed SUPPORT and resources to help these children, the teachers and schools are blamed and punished.

The achievement gap will not be closed until our policymakers stop conveniently scapegoating our public schools and directly confront the societal ills which impact student achievement. Public schools and teachers can make a difference but they alone cannot close the gap, a gap which exists because of conditions out of their control.