Lasting Impact
Great Teaching is Learned
Teachers serve one of the most important roles in a child’s life, but the system around them is making it harder than it should be to reach every student.
Standards raised the bar for the knowledge and skills students need, but they didn’t say how to adjust. That’s a problem when few teachers have effective support within their context to build on their teaching. Many are often on their own to gauge their students’ needs, grapple with evolving expectations, and close unfinished learning. Consequently, students’ opportunities vary widely from classroom to classroom and from year to year.
That’s why our theory of change considers impact in education on multiple levels, drawing connections between student experiences, teaching quality, and school conditions.
Our Challenge
The Opportunity crisis
Most students aren’t ready for their next step, despite doing what is asked of them, because they have too few opportunities to learn essential knowledge and skills. These gaps disproportionately affect students of color and students from households with less wealth. Teachers aren’t to blame for the failures of our education system, but we believe they are the solution.
If we don’t address these challenges head on with proven, systemic solutions, we risk denying the potential of generations of students and losing large numbers of experienced educators to burnout. That’s where Leading Educators comes in.
What We're Up Against
$18,000 per teacher
spent every year on professional development that doesn’t work.
133 hours
wasted each year in each core subject on assignments that are not grade appropriate.
3.6x more
grade appropriate assignments in classrooms with mostly white students.
3 in 10 teachers
show improvement from PD despite $8 billion of yearly spending nationwide.
A Better Way
Teachers have incredible influence. Strong, actionable development can help them build on their strengths so students’ opportunities in the classroom continue to expand over time. That’s why we help partners scale professional learning systems, designed for them, that are radically improving instruction today.
We establish the structures, conditions, and leadership for teachers to practice what they teach, together, so every student learns what they need to succeed. When school is a place where teachers as well as students learn, new levels of progress become possible.
Beyond Test Scores
Together with our partners, we aim to improve not only learning outcomes but life outcomes. This work is about much more than test scores.
Lasting systemic change fundamentally shifts what teachers know, think, and do as well as the support and conditions that all make it stick. So, we assess our impact on all three in addition to student outcomes. That’s how we foster transformational change not just in schools, but in whole communities.
About Robert Berry
Robert Q. Berry, III is the Samuel Braley Gray Professor of Mathematics Education at the University of Virginia the Curry School of Education & Human Development with an appointment in Curriculum Instruction and Special Education.
A former mathematics teacher, he teaches elementary and special education mathematics methods courses in the teacher education program at the University of Virginia. Additionally, he teaches graduate level mathematics education courses and courses for in-service teachers seeking a mathematics specialist endorsement. His research focuses on equity issues in mathematics education, pre-and in-service teachers’ mathematical knowledge for teaching, and mathematics instructional quality. Berry has extensive experience in classroom observation and has collaborated with other researchers to develop an observation instrument, Mathematics Scan, to examine mathematics teaching quality.
A former mathematics teacher, he teaches elementary and special education mathematics methods courses in the teacher education program at the University of Virginia. Additionally, he teaches graduate level mathematics education courses and courses for in-service teachers seeking a mathematics specialist endorsement. His research focuses on equity issues in mathematics education, pre-and in-service teachers’ mathematical knowledge for teaching, and mathematics instructional quality. Berry has extensive experience in classroom observation and has collaborated with other researchers to develop an observation instrument, Mathematics Scan, to examine mathematics teaching quality.
"My hope is that we will build on the mathematical lives of Black kids in the spaces in which they learn, live, and grow."
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About Miah Daughtery
A focused and passionate educator, Miah has more than ten years' experience at the classroom, district, and state levels.
After graduating from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Miah began her journey as a reading and English teacher in the Detroit Public Schools. From Detroit she moved to the Clark County School District (CCSD) in Las Vegas, NV, where she continued to teach and build an expertise in secondary ELA, standards, adult learning, curriculum development, and professional development by serving as a district secondary literacy project facilitator, serving all of the district's middle and high school ELA teachers. After a suite of rich and robust experiences as a district leader, Miah transitioned to the Tennessee Department of Education where she served as the K-12 Literacy Coordinator. In this capacity, Miah's primary responsibilities included developing systems to ensure content accuracy and alignment for the literacy portion of the state assessment, TNReady.
In 2016, Miah completed her doctoral studies at Vanderbilt's Peabody College, obtaining an Ed.D in Educational Administration and Public Policy. Miah joined the Achieve staff in 2016 as the Director, ELA & Literacy. In that role, Miah led the work of ensuring states maintain high college-and-career standards for ELA and assessment systems that align to those standards. Miah provided guidance to states reviewing and revising their state standards and assessments.
After graduating from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Miah began her journey as a reading and English teacher in the Detroit Public Schools. From Detroit she moved to the Clark County School District (CCSD) in Las Vegas, NV, where she continued to teach and build an expertise in secondary ELA, standards, adult learning, curriculum development, and professional development by serving as a district secondary literacy project facilitator, serving all of the district's middle and high school ELA teachers. After a suite of rich and robust experiences as a district leader, Miah transitioned to the Tennessee Department of Education where she served as the K-12 Literacy Coordinator. In this capacity, Miah's primary responsibilities included developing systems to ensure content accuracy and alignment for the literacy portion of the state assessment, TNReady.
In 2016, Miah completed her doctoral studies at Vanderbilt's Peabody College, obtaining an Ed.D in Educational Administration and Public Policy. Miah joined the Achieve staff in 2016 as the Director, ELA & Literacy. In that role, Miah led the work of ensuring states maintain high college-and-career standards for ELA and assessment systems that align to those standards. Miah provided guidance to states reviewing and revising their state standards and assessments.
"Reading does open new worlds for students—they build an understanding of their own world and develop more tolerant communities by reading the stories of others."
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About Jessica Eadie
Jessica Eadie is the Chief Operating Officer at Student Achievement Partners. Jessica joined Student Achievement Partners in 2011 from the New York City Department of Education where she was the Executive Director of Assessment.
Jessica holds a bachelor's from Boston College and a master's in business administration from the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University.
Jessica holds a bachelor's from Boston College and a master's in business administration from the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University.
"I believe education has the power to be life-changing. However, for far too many young people, especially those who are marginalized by our country and educational system, we have not made good on education’s promise."
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About Heather Hill
Heather C. Hill studies policies and programs designed to improve mathematics teacher and teaching quality. Her recent research focuses on: teacher professional development, instructional coaching, teacher evaluation, changes over time in teachers' mathematical knowledge and instructional quality in mathematics, and the teacher experiences and characteristics that lead to high-quality instruction and stronger student outcomes.
Hill and her team have developed assessments that capture teachers' mathematical knowledge for teaching and teachers' mathematical quality of instruction, assessments now widely available to researchers, instructional coaches, evaluators, and policy-makers via online training and administrative systems.
Hill is a fellow of the American Educational Research Association (AERA), and serves on the AERA grants board, on the editorial boards of several journals, and as an advisor to numerous research projects and policy efforts in both the U.S. and abroad. She is co-author of Learning Policy: When State Education Reform Works with David K. Cohen (Yale Press, 2001).
Hill and her team have developed assessments that capture teachers' mathematical knowledge for teaching and teachers' mathematical quality of instruction, assessments now widely available to researchers, instructional coaches, evaluators, and policy-makers via online training and administrative systems.
Hill is a fellow of the American Educational Research Association (AERA), and serves on the AERA grants board, on the editorial boards of several journals, and as an advisor to numerous research projects and policy efforts in both the U.S. and abroad. She is co-author of Learning Policy: When State Education Reform Works with David K. Cohen (Yale Press, 2001).
"Understanding students’ weaknesses is only useful if it changes practice. And, to date, evidence suggests that it does not change practice — or student outcomes. Focusing on the problem has likely distracted us from focusing on the solution."
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About Matthew Steinberg
Dr. Matthew P. Steinberg is an Associate Professor of Education Policy in the College of Education and Human Development, a University Affiliate Faculty at the Schar School of Policy and Government, and Director of EdPolicyForward: The Center for Education Policy at George Mason University.
Dr. Steinberg is an Affiliated Researcher with the University of Chicago Consortium on School Research, a Faculty Affiliate with the Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University, and an IUR Scholar at the University of Pennsylvania Institute for Urban Research. Dr. Steinberg's research addresses issues of educational significance at the intersection of the economics of education and education policy, including: teacher evaluation and human capital; urban school reform; school discipline and safety; and school finance. His work informs local and national policy discussions on the impact of education policies and practices on the distribution of teacher effectiveness and the educational outcomes of students, particularly the most disadvantaged among the population.
A recipient of the 2016 National Academy of Education/Spencer Postdoctoral Fellowship, Dr. Steinberg received his PhD in public policy from the University of Chicago. Prior to graduate study, he was an investment banker and a New York City Teaching Fellow.
Dr. Steinberg is an Affiliated Researcher with the University of Chicago Consortium on School Research, a Faculty Affiliate with the Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University, and an IUR Scholar at the University of Pennsylvania Institute for Urban Research. Dr. Steinberg's research addresses issues of educational significance at the intersection of the economics of education and education policy, including: teacher evaluation and human capital; urban school reform; school discipline and safety; and school finance. His work informs local and national policy discussions on the impact of education policies and practices on the distribution of teacher effectiveness and the educational outcomes of students, particularly the most disadvantaged among the population.
A recipient of the 2016 National Academy of Education/Spencer Postdoctoral Fellowship, Dr. Steinberg received his PhD in public policy from the University of Chicago. Prior to graduate study, he was an investment banker and a New York City Teaching Fellow.
"Systems which rely on potentially biased measures of teacher performance will have important consequences for the diversity of the teacher workforce and for a district’s ability to recruit and support teachers who represent the students they teach and the community in which its schools are located."
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Featured: Teaching for Equity
Teaching for Equity is a new vision for teaching that draws from what we’ve learned leads to opportunity: academics, well-being, and anti-racism. It’s not just a vision, but also an actionable framework to guide teachers to reflect on their teaching, to see the connections across areas of research that support whole students, and to live out commitments to anti-racism every day.
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