Editor’s note: This is part one of a three-part research series on teacher quality in independent schools. This blog focuses on how educators define teacher quality in independent schools. The authors of the study and blog posts are Matt Balossi and Natalia R. Hernández, who recently graduated from the Peabody College of Education’s doctoral program at Vanderbilt University. NAIS members can access the full report here.
Educators, researchers, school administrators, parents, and anyone interested in any sector of schooling are likely to agree on one thing: Students benefit from having great teachers. Public discourse on issues in education focuses largely on the need to improve public schools. Popular media, university and foundational research, state and federal agencies, as well as many others are attempting to discern what is at the heart of school improvement and student learning. A common issue that emerges repeatedly from this discourse is teacher quality. Many educational organizations have turned their attention to issues of how to identify, find, measure, develop, and/or keep great teachers. As 75 percent to 85 percent of school financial resources are attributed to teachers’ salaries, school leaders are also fiscally motivated to hire, develop, and retain the best teachers. (We will address these topics from our research in subsequent blogs.)
While all sectors of schooling have a vested interest in improving teacher quality, independent schools have a greater degree of autonomy in decision making in all areas, including teacher quality. Our mission-driven schools often point to the things that make each independent school unique. In fact, our independent schools are each vastly different. The diversity of our schools adds complexity to our ability to clearly articulate how we define and measure great teachers.
However, it is important to recognize that we all want great teachers in every classroom. Further, many of our great teachers would be great in almost any school. It is not a platitude to acknowledge that highly involved parents, discerning students, and savvy administrators in our schools deeply value the impact of a great teacher. Additionally and increasingly (as it becomes easier to attain public school certification standards) independent schools are often seeking great teachers from the same pool as public schools. While there is a great deal of research in the public school sector, notably the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s Measures of Effective Teaching (MET Project), there is little research independent schools can point to that articulates how we describe, recruit, and retain high-quality teachers in our schools.
Within that context, as doctoral students at Vanderbilt University, we teamed with NAIS to study exactly how administrators and great teachers in independent schools define the key attributes of high-quality teachers in our schools. We designed a mixed methods study in which we surveyed 755 hiring administrators: heads of school, division heads, assistant heads of school, etc. in every NAIS member school. Our results were geographically and demographically reliable (p-value = 0.00). In addition to our survey results, we conducted site visits and focus groups in schools in the Midwest and Southwest regions as well as focus groups with “Teachers of the Future” as identified by NAIS. In essence we asked, “What makes a great teacher in independent schools?” We found that independent schools value four key attributes of high-quality teachers:
Independent school practitioners value teachers who build strong relationships with students. In fact, 100 percent of our survey respondents rated this attribute as important or extremely important. In our study, administrators revealed that this key attribute is foundational to successful teaching in independent schools and equated this attribute with the ability to remain employed. In our focus groups with high-quality teachers, they commonly provided specific descriptions of strong relationships that included, “building trust,” “letting students know you care,” “connecting with students outside of the classroom context,” and “reaching the out-of-the-box student.”
The second attribute that emerged from the data was pedagogical knowledge and content expertise. Our survey data showed that 96 percent of respondents ranked “pedagogical knowledge” as important or extremely important, and 90 percent ranked “content knowledge” as important or extremely important. High-quality instruction requires specific knowledge and an understanding of how to teach. Pedagogical knowledge refers to the sophisticated skills required to teach students effectively. Content expertise describes the knowledge necessary in a content area to construct and deconstruct students’ understanding of the subject matter. We briefly define pedagogical knowledge as a teacher’s understanding of how to teach and content expertise as a teacher’s depth of knowledge in his or her subject area.
Third, independent school leaders as well as the highly qualified teachers we interviewed value teachers who pursue continuous learning and personal growth. For the purpose of our study, we use Carol Dweck’s definition of growth mindset as she applies it to adult learning. We define growth mindset as teachers’ belief that they can improve their pedagogical knowledge and content expertise through continuous learning, effort, and use of feedback. When asked to rate the importance of eight different teacher attributes, 99 percent of respondents rated growth mindset as important or extremely important. Further, 97 percent of respondents denoted “evidence of continuous professional development” as important to extremely important, with 64 percent rating it as extremely important.
Heads of school and division heads we interviewed all refer to great teachers as having the interest, ability, or motivation to learn and improve. Dweck talks about the power of “yet.” We frame this concept as a teacher’s continuous belief that he or she has not perfected a lesson, yet; similarly, we consider a teacher’s approach to student learning as “my students have not mastered the quadratic formula, yet.” Interviewees describe high-quality teachers who regularly seek out professional development opportunities in order to improve their practice and deepen their knowledge base. Additionally, they describe high-quality teachers as those who actively seek out and apply feedback from colleagues and supervisors for improvement.
Perhaps one teacher we interviewed said it best, “The greatest teachers have a restless spirit toward continuous growth. This is both a blessing and a curse. You strive to take your teaching to a new level every year, but you never seem to get there.”
Lastly, independent school administrators and teachers in our study identified fit within the school’s culture as a key attribute of high-quality teachers in independent schools. In our survey of school leaders, the variables “agreement with the school mission/vision/religious affiliation” and “how well they fit within the school’s culture” are, respectively, rated at 99 percent and 96 percent important or extremely important. Our schools are guided by our missions, values, and cultures. Whether a school’s mission is focused on diversity, academic achievement, service to others, faith, or gender, what matters to practitioners is that high-quality teachers authentically believe in the school’s mission and carry it out in their day-to-day work. In NAIS our missions are as varied as our number. Fit is a concept that should carry a school forward as opposed to narrow its success. Thus, the best teachers among independent schools must also work within the exact school into which they fit the best. This final piece to the puzzle may very well prevent a good teacher from being great within certain contexts.
High-quality teachers are at the heart of successful independent schools and student learning. Despite our vast differences, we contend that clearly articulating the attributes of our best teachers can improve our practices. Specifically, our schools can improve recruitment and hiring practices as well as evaluative and retention practices. Identifying, describing, and contextualizing the variables, character traits, expertise, and skills of our best teachers help schools to identify teacher candidates for hire as well as assess and coach our existing staff to higher levels of performance. Understanding how we define high-quality teachers will help us align our practices to those attributes. Identifying the attributes outlined above allows us to purposefully navigate the recruitment, retention, and recognition of high-quality teachers.
