“No one can choose a world without change. We choose only whether we drive change or react to it.”—Bill Gates

The Washington Post reports that Bill Gates and his Gates Foundation is playing a pivotal role in changes for education system. Gates spoke the American Federation of Teachers on July 10. As you view the video and read the following highlights of his speech keep in mind what we wrote back in March about the national poll of 40,000 teachers to which Gates refers. According to the national survey, teachers want supportive leadership more than anything else. In fact, by a wide margin, teachers indicated that supportive leadership (68%) was more important than higher salaries (45%) and pay for performance (8%).

Gates on Reform

• We have made public schools our top priority in the United States, because we believe -- as you do – that nothing is more important for America’s youth, and nothing means more for the future of the country.
• Despite these efforts, our high school scores in math and reading are flat. Our graduation rates have plunged from 2nd in the world to 16th. And our 15-year-olds now rank behind 22 countries in science and behind 31 countries in math.
• There are a growing number of public schools – including charter schools – that smash old prejudices about what low-income and minority students can achieve.
• There is a new understanding that school reform must include teacher partnership. If reforms aren’t shaped by teachers’ knowledge and experience, they’re not going to succeed.

Gates on Teaching

• There is an expanding body of evidence that says the single most decisive factor in student achievement is excellent teaching.
• the teacher is the one that makes the biggest difference – and that difference can be dramatic.
• The pivotal impact of the teacher does not mean that parents, principals, and administrators have fewer obligations. It means they have greater obligations – to support better teaching. We have to make sure that teachers get the evaluations, training, standards, curriculum, assessments, and the student data they need to improve their practice. And teachers deserve our support and respect as they do this.
• Great teaching is the centerpiece of a strong education; everything else revolves around it.
• The schools that made the biggest gains in achievement did more than make structural changes; they also improved teaching.
• The truly impressive reforms share the same strategic core – they all include fair and reliable measures of teacher effectiveness that are tied to gains in student achievement.
• Teachers said in huge numbers that they don’t get enough feedback. They’re not told how they can improve. They’re not given training that can address their weaknesses or help them share their strengths with others.
• Teachers want to help set the expectations that they will be held accountable for. You want to be rewarded for results. You want better evaluations. You’re tired of subjective, infrequent evaluations by administrators who don’t know how to improve instruction – the people who come into your class and write “Yes” or “No” for things like: “arrives on time” and “maintains professional appearance.”
• But even fair and insightful teacher evaluations are not enough to improve student gains; they have to be tied to great professional development that is customized for each teacher.

Gates on Improving Teaching

• This is the heart of the challenge – how do you set up a system that helps every teacher get better?
• Teaching is difficult. It’s hugely complex. You have to be able to make a subject clear – and also make it interesting. You have to calm the disruptive kids, challenge the advanced kids, humor the bored kids, and reach the kids who learn at a different pace. And you’ve got to do it with 30 students in the classroom – some of whom might be tough kids who want to see you fail.
• If you told me I had to teach 30 students, I don’t know how I’d do it.
• If we leave teachers to learn it on their own, we will never make the most of their talent. If we don’t develop the talent of our teachers, we’re going to waste the talent of our students.
• We can’t afford that. We need to make sure that every teacher can learn from the best – and keep learning every year for their entire career.
• But if you’re fighting only for wages, hours and working conditions, then it’s just teachers fighting for teachers. If you’re also fighting for evaluations tied to student gains and training that makes an impact in the classroom, then it’s teachers fighting for students.
• There are many great teachers in America. Now we need to understand what makes them great, and help all teachers learn from them. This is worth our best combined efforts – because of all the factors that affect our future, schools are the most important. And of all the work that goes on in our schools, teaching matters most.