William Sanders, head of the project, said in 1998 that students who had top teachers three years in a row, from third through fifth grade, ended up with math scores 50 percentage points higher than those who had poor teachers through those years. Linda Darling-Hammond, a Stanford University professor who is executive director of the commission, says progress has been made on almost every front. Or as some educators say rhetorically, it requires more apprentice work and supervision to become a bricklayer than a teacher. There is less tolerance of poor performance among morticians. There is no question that there is such a thing as good teaching.
Parents know it - that's why involved parents lobby to get their child in a particular class.
Kids know it - ask them who the best teachers are in their school. Their answers will be colored by popularity, but they are still likely to be close to the mark. And teachers especially know it. They almost always know who the stars are in their buildings. It may require a special principal, the right colleagues, the right talents and internal motivations.