Teacher Talent and Urban Schools.

The Urban Teacher Perceiver Interview is not a quick fix. But starting with an investment in teachers, Mr. Gordon avers, is the only way we can hope to significantly improve urban education. HOW CAN America's urban schools and the students they serve be more successful? Certain-ly, no easy answer is available. But companies throughout the private sector are learning in the late 1990s that the most important asset of any organization is not its physical resources but its employees. Find the right people, and two things happen: organizational performance improves, and the need for remedial programs declines. Finding the right teachers for urban schools is thus the first step in helping those schools improve. The Gallup Organization's research suggests that outstanding urban teachers do exist, can be identified, and do make a difference. Yet many school districts take a very unsystematic, unfocused, and unorganized approach to what is the defining activity of a school district: identifying those who should be invited to join the district as teachers. While site-based decision making may be important, districtwide assessment of talent remains a crucial organizational responsibility. Like successful businesses of the future, successful school districts of the future will develop systems to focus and organize the process of recruiting, selecting, and developing teacher talent at the district and building levels. Think for a moment of the best teacher you have ever known. Jot down a description of that person, using words or phrases that are meaningful to you. Describe why you think this person is the best teacher. If you are like most people, the things you remember about the great teachers in your life cannot be taught, trained, or coerced. The qualities you remember are somewhat intangible and came from within the person. To be sure, great teachers are intelligent, know their subject matter, and understand the science of learning. The importance of subject-matter knowledge has been underscored by numerous observers,1 and the importance of hiring teachers knowledgeable in the subject matter to be taught cannot be ignored. Indeed, it is critical. But expertise in subject matter is not enough by itself. Students need teachers who are knowledgeable in content, who know how to teach, and who have the talents that characterize the best urban teachers. From studying outstanding urban teachers, we know that they have the courage and the empathy to deal with tough situations directly, but in a caring manner & all the while teaching subject content.2 All students need caring teachers, and recent work suggests that, when students perceive a teacher as caring, both student behavior and academic performance improve.3 But it is the intensity of working for and caring about students in urban schools that makes effective urban teachers different from their counterparts in the suburbs. As a result of having studied teachers like the one you just remembered, the Gallup Organization offers the Urban Teacher Perceiver Interview as a systematic, focused, and organized approach to the staff selection and development process. The Urban Teacher Perceiver Interview differs from a typical interview in three significant ways: first, it is based on a study of the best urban teachers as identified through principal rankings and student ratings; second, a research-based structured interview format focuses interviewers on appropriate questions and on what to listen for; and third, interview teams are trained in the process of administering and interpreting the interview results. Gallup's study of urban teachers is part of a philosophy that focuses on seeking the best. Research spanning more than 25 years suggests that the people who are the best in any field talk and behave differently from those who are less productive. In the urban teacher development study, teachers who were rated low by administrators and received low ratings from students typically were concerned about discipline. …