A Conversation With Alice Cain, Hope Street Group

Education Director
August 2011

Hope Street works to expand economic opportunity for all Americans through “Policy 2.0” -- a different way of thinking and acting in the policy arena that includes bringing new talent and tools to traditionally partisan debates. To affect change, Hope Street convenes entrepreneurs and other leaders from the business, government, and nonprofit sectors, providing an innovative online platform where leaders from across sectors can collaborate to develop solutions to pressing policy problems. Most recently, Hope Street's platform is being used by teachers, principals, parents, and business leaders in five leading states as they re-imagine and redesign their teacher evaluation systems to ensure that every student in every classroom across their state has an outstanding teacher. Note: since the interview was conducted, Alice Cain has been appointed Vice President, External Relations at the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools.

How will you effect change in education?
We're really trying to make sure every child in this country has a great teacher in their classroom.  And we're working in five states with about 2,000 teachers helping them get the information they need to be more effective in the classroom – as well as helping schools get what they need to make school improvement decisions.

Is evaluation widespread?
Most people don't realize how little evaluation is done in our schools.  This is a departure from nearly every profession where regular evaluations identify strengths and weaknesses, and help people become better at their jobs.

Who is demanding evaluation?
A lot of teachers are clamoring for evaluation and are very supportive of efforts to build a more meaningful evaluation system.  To get it right, we’ve got to bring teachers into the process, tapping into their expertise.     

What does a child gain with a great teacher?
A great teacher makes all the difference.  We all know it. But there's now plenty of research that shows that if students, particularly students who are struggling or who start out the academic year behind their peers, get a great teacher, there's an very good likelihood they’ll catch up. But if a child gets an ineffective teacher, particularly three years in a row, the results are devastating for that child, for that community, and ultimately for our country.

To what extent does tenure add to the system’s difficulties? 
In K-12, tenure can be, and all too often is, a way of keeping teachers in the classroom who shouldn't necessarily be there.  Really strong evaluation systems would help to identify the best teachers, as well as those who perhaps need to be counseled into doing something else. 

Will evaluations help teachers improve across the board?
Often what gets lost in this conversation is that people are good at different things.  You could be a great science teacher, or great at teaching fractions.  But maybe you're not a great reading teacher.  So a good evaluation system can help a principal identify, for example, who’s great at fractions.  Let's have that teacher teach all the kids fractions, or teach other teachers how to teach fractions.  But with the teacher who’s struggling with fractions, despite being a superb reading teacher, let's either remove her from teaching math or get her extra help.    

What are the societal benefits of better teachers?
A great teacher’s impact has a ripple effect.  There's an immediate impact on the child.  There's an impact on their family, their community and on all of society.  When well-prepared kids graduate, go out into the world and make a contribution, the extent of the impact is limitless.

What about the other side of the coin?
I have also seen what happens to kids who have graduated and couldn't read their diplomas.  These are very smart, talented people, whose schooling did not deliver the basic skills.  They often don’t learn to read until well into adulthood, if ever.  The tragedy here is how much more productive and satisfying their lives could have been.

How does the society benefit from better-educated students?
Our country is facing some really serious problems.  Our country is perhaps at the most precarious point in its history. To help solve problems like climate change, for example, we need all our kids—not just the best and brightest—to fulfill their potential.  And in five to 10 years we’ll be dealing with problems that are not yet even on our radar.  So it's not just about getting skills like reading, writing, math, but it's about creativity and the ability to problem solve.     

How important is Carnegie Corporation funding to transforming public education?
They’re supporting some of the best minds and top talent, the most respected organizations in the field.  But they’re also incubating new groups with very good ideas.      By bringing together the old and the new, they’re helping us learn from each other. And that will make a huge difference.