November 17, 2002

Why Schools Succeed

Reg Weaver
President, NEA

All parents I talk to--especially inner-city parents--are very clear about what they want for their children's education. They want the same thing that America's wealthiest parents already have: quality public schools right in their neighborhood, schools with high standards, excellent teachers, and quality support professionals. I profoundly agree.

Bear in mind that 85 percent of America's most affluent, best-educated parents send their children to public schools. Why? One big reason is that their public schools are staffed by highly qualified, fully certified teachers.

Excellent teachers and support professionals are the backbone of excellent public schools. This is just common sense. And this is exactly why the newly reauthorized Elementary and Secondary Education Act requires that by the year 2006 every teacher in every public school classroom must be "highly qualified" and "fully certified."

For us at NEA, this promise of a quality teacher in every classroom is a professional dream come true. We have been working toward this goal for decades.

The harsh reality, today, is that nearly 10 million American children are being raised in poverty in urban and rural communities. These are America's neediest children, but they are least likely to have qualified teachers.

Says Stanford professor Linda Darling-Hammond: "In the nation's poorest schools, thousands of children are taught throughout their school careers by a parade of teachers without preparation in the fields they teach, inexperienced beginners with little training and no mentoring, and short-term substitutes trying to cope with constant staff disruptions."

Parents with children in these schools are deeply concerned. They look across town to wonderful suburban public schools, and they ask: "Is my child being set up to fail?"

In fairness to these parents, we must be skeptical of folks who are now proposing that the definition of "highly qualified" and "fully certified" be watered down-for instance, by allowing unqualified, unprepared people into the classroom after passing a six-week crash course in teaching.

Affluent suburban school districts already insist on the most stringent standards of teacher quality. It is inner-city and rural schools-schools hard hit by the teacher shortage-that will have to resort to hiring teachers with watered-down credentials. This will simply perpetuate the second-class system that exists today. And it will betray the promise to "leave no child behind."

This is no time for Washington to go wobbly on teacher-quality standards. The law is unambiguous in requiring a "highly qualified" and "fully certified teacher" in every classroom by 2006. This is a solemn promise to America's parents and children.

So let me repeat: I want the same thing for all of America's children that 85 percent of our most affluent children have: quality public schools staffed by highly qualified teachers and support professionals. Because to leave no child behind, we must leave no teacher unqualified.

Reg Weaver
President, National Education Association
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