Measure Actual Classroom Teaching

By Robert C. Pianta

The No Child Left Behind Act is far from perfect, but it has had a positive impact on our schools. As Congress prepares to reauthorize the law, it should not toss out the program, but fix what is broken. In particular, Congress should revise the legislation’s definitions of teacher quality, which currently do not ensure effective classroom teaching.

Among its many provisions, NCLB affirms a child’s right to a “highly qualified” teacher. Since the original legislation was signed into law in 2002, states have been scrambling to define, assess, track, and regulate what that means. Amid all the debate over definitions and procedures, however, no one has suggested that classroom visits to watch teachers teach, employing standardized assessments of good teaching, could be used to accomplish this objective.

Instead, proxies for teaching are the order of the day. “Highly qualified” is most often defined in terms of teachers’ degrees, training, or certification, or their consistent production of test-score...