Merit Software Dispatch

Malcolm Gladwell tackles the controversial issue of hiring teachers in a new New Yorker piece Most Likely to Succeed

“students of a very bad teacher will learn, on average, half a year’s worth of material in one school year. The students in the class of a very good teacher will learn a year and a half’s worth of material.”

In other words, a very good teacher is three times or 200% more effective than a very bad one.

Since good teachers cost the same as bad ones, the article suggests that we need to figure out a way to find good teachers. The problem, according to Gladwell, is that this is an impossible task.

The article compares NFL scouts’ efforts to finding a star quarterback to that of school administrators finding star teachers.

“Test scores, graduate degrees, and certifications — as much as they appear related to teaching prowess — turn out to be about as useful in predicting success as having a quarterback throw footballs into a bunch of garbage cans.”

Good teachers, Gladwell writes, have the ability to manage classroom behavior and to provide direct, personal feedback to students.

He concludes by suggesting that schools should consider hiring teachers using the same strategy financial service firms use to seek out effective financial advisers–hire four trainees and assume that just one will succeed.

However, schools already hire several new teachers a year who are essentially trainees. Plus, a huge percentage of all teachers leave the profession — for a variety of reasons — after just a few years.

Next to hiring good teachers, we believe schools should focus on using tools that give all teachers the opportunity to have the same results that a good teacher has. Tools such as Merit Software.

Merit has been the subject of independent rigorous research. In a recent study, with random pupil assignment, 19% more 7th graders and 37% more 6th graders passed their state’s Reading Language Arts test when Merit was used to supplement in-class instruction.

Considering that a good teacher is three times more effective than a bad one, these results are reasonable and attainable for other schools.

It provides frequent, direct personal feedback and in-depth instruction. When used in the classroom, Merit encourages a greater back-and-forth among teachers and students.

Merit is easy for both teachers and students to learn to use. It also frees up teachers’ time to work with struggling students.

In the study mentioned above, teachers used the Punch writing programs–Essay Punch and Paragraph Punch–a great deal. The study indicated that teachers are increasingly effective as the ties between the Punch method and in-class instruction are strengthened. That’s why Book Punch was introduced.

We need to be creative and find hassle-free, cost-effective solutions if we are to improve teacher quality. The old solutions to improve adolescent literacy skills have not worked.

What else do you think we should do?

The recent article Minorities have not caught up on test scores points out that in the Rowan Salisbury School System, as in many communities across the United States, white students did better in the last year on proficiency exams than their black and Hispanic peers.

Schools Superintendent Dr. Judy Grissom said the results come as no surprise. White students have historically tested better than minority students. Since the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, schools have been concentrating as never before on how to help all students make the grade. “To help narrow the gap,” Grissom says, “teachers can start concentrating on individual students” within the class as a whole.

Many schools have used Merit Software to help teachers start concentrating on individual students within a class setting. The most popular resources are Essay Punch, Paragraph Punch, and Book Punch.

Dr. Rebecca Smith, assistant superintendent for curriculum of the Rowan Salisbury School System, says “we need to have a sense of urgency about closing these achievement gaps. Obstacles of cultural differences and the hardships of poverty can be overcome.” Merit software has a strong track record of helping to narrow the gap.

Merit’s achievements in helping minority students in public schools have been documented by faculty at the Marshall University Graduate College. The evidence shows that Merit also helps schools to teach core curriculum skills when used as part of in-class instruction. It also increases student standardized test scores without teaching to the test.

Students are engaged while using the software. High expectations are set and aspirations are met when using the programs.

What are your experiences in confronting this issue?