High-Quality Teachers = Student Achievement

Raising student achievement is top on everyone’s minds these days. Schools are continually looking at new programs to adopt, new materials to purchase for instructional purposes. Yet, research consistently points to the impact of the quality of a teacher on student achievement. For example, John Hattie’s meta-analysis of more than 2,100 studies in Visible Learning: The Sequel showed that the strategies of high-quality teachers (e.g., expectations, clarity, feedback, and relationships) have a greater impact on student achievement than curricular programs. Given that the teaching force is filled with teachers who are newer to the field: How are you supporting them to be the best at their craft?

Thriving Over Surviving Requires Teacher Development

During and directly after the pandemic, schools everywhere were essentially “surviving,” trying to get back to normal. Teachers were leaving the field and schools were dealing with teacher shortages. Quick fixes and pivots were needed to wade through the day-to-day crises. But it’s important to realize that five years out, we’re not there anymore.

In organizations that are simply surviving, the rule of thumb is to prevent employees from quitting. Once organizations move out of survival mode toward thriving, which schools should be doing, the focus shifts from mere retention to employee development. Employee development increases efficacy and job satisfaction. It should be the top priority of every school.

The Challenges of Teacher Development

  • • School calendars do not typically provide a lot of time for teacher development.
  • • Budgets do not provide funds to bring teachers in for extended days of professional development in the summer.
  • • Teachers do not necessarily want to give up extended days in the summer for professional development.
  • • Much professional development is focused on how to use a new curricular program, which is not particularly inspiring to teachers.
  • • New initiatives tend to be seen as “more to do.”

The Realities of Today’s Students

  • • Generation Alpha (born 2010–2024) is the first fully digital generation, having access to technology and the internet from the time they could hold their mom’s cell phone; they are independent, connected, immediacy-driven, reality-focused, and more.
  • • Remote and hybrid teaching had a mostly negative effect on students’ executive function and social development.
  • • Today’s classrooms have a greater span of learners in terms of academic skills.
  • • Today’s classrooms have a greater percentage of English Language Learners than ever before.

A Call to Action

School and district leaders: Inspire, encourage, and support your teachers in allocating one day this summer to advance their craft.

  • • IDE Corp. will customize a set of days and topics for you and deliver workshop experiences that are engaging and that provide teachers and administrators with actionable strategies to use during the school year.
  • • Use the time to celebrate your teachers and their participation in “One Day This Summer!”
  • • We will provide you with a list of workshops you’ve offered, along with the actionable strategies introduced, so you can follow up with teachers in the fall — perhaps have them share their ideas with other staff members.

Sampling of workshops you may choose to provide:

If you wish to download a flyer of these titles, click here!

Invest in next year’s results with “One Day This Summer!” Let’s be creative this summer in inspiring and outfitting our teachers to address the unique needs of students in the 2025–2026 school year! For a no-pressure consultation to determine how you might provide a “One Day This Summer!” PD experience, contact Nicole “Nik” Koch at solutions@idecorp.com.

Other online options for teacher and leader development:

Our Virtual Learning Communities are online workshops with flexible engagement, facilitated by a consultant, taking place over two weeks in the summer.

Our online, self-paced Professional Learning Experiences (PLEs) focus on one or more topics: Enroll a school and use the resources during faculty meetings, PD days, opening-of-school events, post-observation conferences, PLCs, and more.