If there’s a musical instrument I could play, it would probably be the drums. (Some of you may think it’s the horn I like to toot, and my mom & dad have already said “No” to any loud percussion instruments, but anyway….)

Why? Because I like to keep banging on the drum of how very, very important teacher quality is to improving schools and student learning outcomes. Reforms like performance pay, streamlining tenure, and alternative certification are not merely nice ideas, but vital changes that need to be made to our school systems.

On that note (pun intended), all of you — especially the teacher quality skeptics — really ought to check out this new issue brief by the Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF)’s Brooke Dollens Terry, “Shortchanging Our Kids: How Poor Teacher Quality & Failed Government Policies Harm Students” (PDF). Many of the things Brooke writes about Texas could apply to Colorado as well.

While I’m beating on the drum, one of the groups doing great real-world work in adding quality teachers to the instructional ranks is ABCTE. ABCTE has just created a great new resource directed at teachers and leaders of charter schools — designed to help connect top-notch applicants with job openings and other valuable resources: CharterTeacher.com

If Colorado and the nation are not yet where we need to be in terms of filling our classrooms with high-quality teachers, it’s not for lack of effort from my friends in the Education Policy Center, as well as groups like TPPF, ABCTE, and many others. It’s more than just a lot of drums banging….

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