What about the gold standard of teaching, National Board Certification? Washington spends about $70 million annually encouraging pursuit of this status with salary-boosting incentives. Yet Dan Goldhaber, a professor at the University of Washington and one of the country’s preeminent researchers on teacher quality, found that board certification results in only modest gains to student learning — about five weeks’ acceleration in middle school math, at best.
Bottom line: It is almost impossible to predict good teachers until they are standing in front of a roomful of kids. And once employed, it is difficult to remove those who are ineffective. Washington’s teacher-evaluation tool, which includes classroom observations and student growth, rates virtually every educator as “Proficient” or “Distinguished.”
Student outcomes suggest otherwise. With only 39% of all kids at grade level in math, and 51% able to read or write appropriately, state educators have work to do.
Teacher-qualification reforms here have focused on boosting diversity, but other regions are making very different choices. Goldhaber points to Washington, D.C., as a particularly dramatic example.