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TUSD 1 of 7 in US study of teachers who excel

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Educators frequently talk about making data-driven decisions in the classroom, basing lessons on students' performance on tests that point out what they're learning and what they're missing. It is exciting, then, that Tucson Unified School District is one of seven districts involved in a federal study into whether an excellent teacher in one school environment will be as effective in a different school.

The study will pay 15 TUSD teachers significant bonuses to leave the high-performing schools where they have been on faculty and spend the next two years in struggling schools that have a hard time attracting teachers. The 15 teachers were selected because their students have consistently high test scores and they will be paid an additional $20,000 over the next two years to change schools.

"We wanted to find out if teachers who outperformed their peers year after year look just as good when they move to a struggling school. Do their skills transfer?" said Steve Glazerman, the project director with Mathematica Policy Research, a New Jersey-based public-policy group, in a story by the Star's Rhonda Bodfield.

Researchers also want to know if teachers are willing to leave a high-achieving school for a more difficult school if they're paid significantly more.

Teachers from Carson and Pistor middle schools transferred to Safford and Valencia middle schools, and at the elementary level, teachers from Blenman, Duffy, Holladay, Hughes, Rose, Van Buskirk, Vesey and Wheeler were deployed to Cavett, Davidson, Grijalva, Maldonado, Menlo Park, Miller, Richey and Wright.

According to Bodfield's story, in addition to the 15 teachers who will receive extra money for moving to a new school, 29 other high-performance teachers were already working in the target schools. They were offered $10,000 to stay at their school for the next two years — 26 of those teachers accepted.

TUSD makes an excellent test case for studying teachers. The district has a mix of high-performing and struggling schools, as well as a cross section of the community. The district encompasses wealthy areas and neighborhoods where almost every student qualifies for the federal free- or reduced-price lunch program; schools where students' parents typically have college degrees and those where many haven't graduated from high school.

It is common sense that children's lives outside of school has bearing on their performance in school. Poverty, job loss, frequent moves, family instability — all of these factors have an effect on a child. They don't mean that a child is less intelligent or unable to achieve, of course, but they can present challenges to the student and teacher who don't face those hurdles to the same degree in more affluent neighborhoods.

The challenge for schools is to create such a powerful academic atmosphere that those outside influences don't overwhelm the classroom learning. It's common sense that high-quality teachers who demand and expect high-quality performance from their students — and help them to reach their potential — make a big difference.

Putting that assumption to the test, however, is important because if teachers can replicate their individual effectiveness regardless of the classroom, that could have implications for how school districts deploy teachers and how they create plans to improve underachieving schools.

We look forward to seeing the results of this federal study and learning how TUSD teachers compare to those in the other school districts. This information will be valuable in the effort to improve education for Arizona kids.