The Answer Sheet - The "three great teachers in a row" myth

The Answer Sheet - The "three great teachers in a row" myth: "The first paragraph of the recommendations says: "Effective teachers are critical to raising achievement and closing longstanding gaps among student subgroups. Indeed, the research on this point has become absolutely clear: Students who have three or four strong teachers in a row will soar academically, regardless of their racial or economic background, while those who have a sequence of weak teachers will fall further and further behind."

Actually the research isn't "absolutely clear" on this point.

Nobody, of course, would argue that all students shouldn’t have great teachers. But there has evolved a myth that the achievement gap could be closed if students only had a succession of “effective teachers.” This ignores the effects of a difficult home life on a student, and, again, judges how “effective” a teacher is on the basis of how much students improve on standardized tests."

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