Entirely Secondary: Good Teaching Does Not Compute

(Editor's note: Entirely Secondary is a column by San Leandro High School English teacher Jerry Heverly. The title is inspired by education blogger Joe Bower who says that when his students do a science experiment, learning is the priority. Getting the correct answer is entirely secondary.)

By Jerry Heverly

There’s a national movement to judge teachers numerically—by how much their students improve (or fall) in state testing.

Governor Brown, and his teacher allies, don’t like this idea. They are resisting pressure from Washington to force schools to institute these kinds of measurements of teacher effectiveness.

The debate takes me back to my days as a substitute teacher. I was often assigned to substitute for two women teachers at the local high school (not San Leandro).

Dorothy and Ellen taught a kind of study hall for ‘at risk’ kids. They taught in the same room, alternating periods. Students were supposed to come to class with homework from other subjects. The two ladies were to tutor them and help them keep up their grades.

Dorothy was the kind of enthusiastic, intense teacher who stands out in our memories of high school. She must have dressed hastily in the morning as her attire was often mismatched and as improvisational as her personality. Her light brown curly hair rarely looked neat.  Dorothy was often the first teacher in the building in the morning and the last to leave. I often saw her conferring with students and/or parents in the early evening. She cared deeply about her students. She put in long hours trying to help kids, not just those in her classroom but just about anyone who needed her assistance.

Ellen came to school at 8:11 am. School started at 8:12. She was gone and  out the door at three o’clock as the bell sounded. Her appearance showed the attention to detail that she also displayed in her teaching. Her outfits matched and exhibited the latest fashion. Her blonde hair was cut short in what was almost a cliché for a certain kind of teacher.

In the classroom Ellen brooked no nonsense. She required students to be in their seats when the bell rang, notebooks open, with a list of every assignment to be completed that period. She moved quietly from student to student, coaching, correcting, admonishing. There was little personal contact between Ellen and her students. She seldom smiled. Anyone not ‘on task’ for the entire period risked dire consequences. Her classes were models of efficiency.

Dorothy’s classroom was in sharp contrast. The atmosphere was relaxed. She was often at the back of the room giving a pep talk to a student whose grades were lagging. “You can do better,” she would tell a slump-shouldered young man. She was the mother that many of these kids did not have at home. She supplied the motivation to succeed that only comes from a trusted adult.

Dorothy’s classroom, however, was not well organized. Only about half the kids would be doing schoolwork. A few were holding quiet conversations, painting their nails, or ‘resting’ with heads down. Notebooks were still in backpacks long after the starting bell rang.

Seeing these two women work left me constantly perplexed. Who was the better teacher?

There is no doubt that more schoolwork was done in Ellen’s classroom. I suspect, but couldn’t prove, that Ellen’s test scores would be better.

Yet when I think about what happens in the high schools where I’ve worked I always remember the teachers who were loved by their students.  They always seemed to be the ones who helped mold children into productive adults, the ones who pointed kids in the right direction. Without Dorothy that school would have been a more discouraging place.

The taxpayers, understandably, want to know that their children are being instructed by the best possible teachers.

The day is coming when Dorothy or Ellen (or me) may need to prove to a computer that we are doing the right things.

I’m not sure there is a number for that.

(New to the column? Read other installments of Entirely Secondary.)

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