Good Education Requires More Than Good Teachers

Susan Moore JohnsonIn a new EPI Briefing Paper released October 26th, Harvard Professor Susan Moore Johnson summarizes recent research that argues that reforms focused solely on individual teachers falls short. The now conventional wisdom that the way to improve education is to find talented teachers, assign them to classrooms, and hold them accountable for raising student standardized test scores has not led to the desired results. Rather, she argues, we need to focus on the structure and culture of schools and the ways that teachers work together. We need to build the professional capacity of schools as learning communities.