Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
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JULY 12-18, 2017 UCW 25 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM While there is no shortage of opinions and contro- versy about how best to improve schooling, virtually everyone agrees that the quality of teaching is the criti- cal variable. To improve schooling is only to contribute to the future success of students, not to guarantee it. Formal education is only one influence on child development. Kids who grow up in single-parent families, in poverty and in unsafe neighborhoods — conditions that are highly correlated with each other, by the way — have disadvantages that won't necessarily be dispelled by access to good schools. at's no argument for inaction, however, or for changing the focus to policy issues other than educa- tion. For example, government policy may have played a role in disrupting the traditional two-parent family, as conservatives persuasively argue, but it's far from clear what government policies could reverse the damage. e same constraint doesn't apply to education. ere is an emerging body of compelling empirical evidence suggesting that teacher quality significantly affects student performance and that certain qualities or policies are more likely than others to improve the quality of teaching. In a new paper published in the Journal of Eco- nomic Surveys, a team of Dutch scholars analyzed the academic research on teacher quality conducted since the 1970s by researchers across the developed world. e authors picked only high-quality studies, exclud- ing those with inadequate statistical controls or other defects. en they summarized the results. One of them will be familiar to readers of this column: teachers with graduate degrees are no more effective than teachers without them. is is one of the most replicated findings in modern education research — which makes it all the more outrageous when the North Carolina legis- lature is attacked for getting rid of teacher bonuses for acquiring graduate degrees. Naturally, there were clear ben- eficiaries from the practice, which was in place for decades before the General Assembly ended it in 2013. Most of them worked in North Carolina schools of education. Paying teachers to get degrees produced a steady stream of revenue to these schools, even as it produced no detectable improvement in student learn- ing, because most of the advanced degrees teachers acquired were in education, not in particular subjects. As it happens, the Dutch researchers did find at least some evidence that math and science teachers with graduate degrees in those fields — and only those fields — are more effective than peers who completed their educations as undergraduates. Similarly, while most studies of teacher certification find no differences in effectiveness between teachers who obtain certifica- tion through the traditional university route and those who obtain alternative certification, having a credential for math instruction is a notable exception. e findings on certification, by the way, might come as a surprise to those who've read about North Carolina students faring worse when taught by teachers with alternative certifications. Keep in mind that those reports did not, by and large, attempt to adjust for other differences between the teacher populations. In other words, those who pursue alternative certification differ from other teachers in ways that have nothing to do with the certification process. If you don't adjust for demographics and other factors, you can't draw meaningful conclusions. When it comes to teacher ex- perience, most studies find a link between experience and effective- ness, but it's not necessarily a linear relationship. at is, the relationship can't be de- picted with a straight line on a graph. e Dutch team concluded that "most studies find significant learning gains for the first couple of years of experience, but hardly any later on in the teacher's career," although there are a few counterexamples in the literature. What does appear to matter, then? Based on the studies to date, the subject-matter knowledge of teachers, their performance while in college, and the rigor of the colleges they attend are important considerations. North Carolina policymakers should structure our recruitment, compensation and reten- tion policies accordingly. All of which assumes, perhaps unrealistically, that we can debate the issue of teacher quality on the basis of evidence, not politics or special- interest pleading. Subject Mastery Produces Best Teaching by JOHN HOOD POLITICS If you are willing to be both entertained and dis- turbed by your summer vacation books, I have four new volumes for your consideration: two books by important photogra- phers and two literary mysteries that raise important public policy issues. First, the photographs. If you grew up in the rural South of yesteryear and remember the landscapes, the crops, the tractors, the people, the country stores and churches, you will identify with UNC-Chapel Hill Professor William Ferris's book, "e South in Color: A Visual Journal." In the introduc- tion Ferris wrote, "As a photographer of the American South, I sought the Holy Grail — that single image that captures the region in its fullest, most engaging expres- sion." His 100 color photographs document life in the South while he was growing up in the latter half of the last century. e striking photos of ordinary scenes include farm fields, families and churches. Lovely, but they also disturb as they illustrate the racial divi- sions that characterized the South. His beautiful and unsettling images mark Ferris as a true artist with an important message. Earlier editions of Waynesville's Kevin Adams's "North Carolina Waterfalls" sold more than 65,000 cop- ies. at is an amazing report, but easier to understand when the reader and viewer see his photographs of hundreds of our state's enchanting waterfalls and read his detailed and compelling descriptions of the falls, how Adams approached his task, and the dangers to these treasures from hu- man activity. Adams teaches nature photography semi- nars and leads popular waterfall photogra- phy tours. He is the author and photogra- pher of a series of earlier books about scenic Western North Carolina. His new edition of "North Carolina Waterfalls" includes 300 full color waterfall profiles and, in addition, 700 descrip- tions of other nearby falls. "e two years I worked on this project were grueling, but they reminded me just how much North Carolina's waterfalls are in my bloodstream," Adams wrote. e resulting combination of lovely photography and accompanying background information makes for a classic. Now, the question-raising fiction. In award-winning poet, novelist and former Duke professor Elizabeth Cox's latest novel, "A Question of Mercy," actions of a mentally challenged teenaged boy begin to frighten other children and alarm their parents. Set in the North Carolina of the early 1950s, we learn the family's side of this situation through the voice of Jess Booker, the teenaged stepsister of Adam, who suffers from a disabling mental condition. At first, Jess is Adam's unwilling and uncomfortable caregiver. en she warms to Adam and becomes his advocate, arguing against her stepmother's determina- tion to send him to a state institution where he would be subject to radical medical treatments including lobotomy and sterilization. As Adam comes to under- stand what is in store for him, he becomes desperately sad. After a walk with Jess along the French Broad River, Adam disappears. When Adam's body is found downriver, Jess, who has run away on a long journey of her own, becomes a murder suspect, and the novel's story becomes, in part, a murder mystery. e central character of Hickory's Angela Pisel's debut novel, "With Love from the Inside," is Grace Bradshaw. She knows the exact minute she will die. On death row for murdering her infant son, her last breath will be taken on February 15 at 12:01 a.m. Out of ap- peals, she can focus on only one thing — reconnecting with her daughter Sophie, who has moved on to a new life, convinced that her mother was guilty. Over time Sophie learns facts that show her mother was innocent and unfairly convicted. With the help of her mother's lawyer, Sophie fights against all obstacles to stop the ex- ecution. Whether she succeeds or not, her life is forever changed, as will be the lives of many readers who will be moved by Pisel's poignant debut. Books to Entertain and Disturb by D.G. MARTIN LITERATURE D.G. MARTIN, Host of UNC's Book Watch. COMMENTS? Editor@upandcomingweekly. com. (910) 484-6200. "I have four new volumes for your con- sideration: two books by important pho- tographers and two literary mysteries that raise important public policy issues." JOHN HOOD, Chairman of the John Locke Founda- tion. Contributing Writer. COMMENTS? Editor@ upandcomingweekly.com. (910) 484-6200. "Teachers with graduate degrees are no more effective than teachers without them."