A few years ago, the trustees of Chattanooga’s Benwood Foundation resolved to do whatever it took to reverse the failure of several of that city’s failing schools, devoting millions of dollars in grants to raise student achievement. The focus on attracting and retaining highly qualified teachers with financial incentives paid off and the “Benwood Initiative” became a nationally heralded school turnaround “how-to” tale.
A new Education Sector report by Ellen Silva argues that “Benwood’s success was not just about attracting new talent, but helping existing teachers improve the quality of their instruction. Arguments that the initiative brought new and better teachers to troubled Chattanooga schools, however are overstated.
“These findings have implications for other districts looking to turn around low-performing schools—of which there are many in the era of the federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB),” Silva notes. “There is no doubt that disadvantaged students are disproportionately likely in American education to be taught by less experienced, less qualified, less effective teachers….As the Benwood Initiative demonstrates, individual teacher effectiveness is not a fixed trait. School systems can take many steps, as
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