Welcome Boost to Teaching

Education Secretary Richard W. Riley in a speech this week identified a principal reason why the test scores of so many U.S. students have lagged far behind those of students abroad. “Too many school districts are sacrificing quality for quantity [of teachers] to meet the immediate demands of putting a warm body in front of a classroom,” Riley said, pointing out that school districts often lack the focus and resources needed to help teachers improve their skills and boost student performance.

That’s why two huge private gifts announced this week, giving Los Angeles and Orange counties some of the key resources they need to improve teacher training, are so welcome. On Monday, inventor Arnold Beckman announced a $14.4-million donation to help improve the quality of science teaching in Orange County public elementary schools. And on Tuesday, Barbara and Roger Rossier, both of whom earned doctoral degrees at the University of Southern California’s School of Education, donated $20 million to the school--the largest gift ever made to an education school in the United States.

USC plans to use some of the money to set up a charter school wherein master teachers could help student teachers hone their skills, much as physicians now help medical students in university hospitals.

Education reform begins in the community, but Congress needs to help as well by passing a provision in the Higher Education Act that would offer federal Pell grants to 35,000 college students who agree to become teachers in low-performing or underserved schools.

Congress should also pass the proposed Reading Excellence Act, which Rep. William F. Goodling (R-Pa.) introduced last year to provide $260 million in grants for school districts that take steps to improve their students’ literacy skills through teacher training in reading instruction. The bill’s passage had been delayed by opposition from some teachers groups that challenged a provision calling for student and teacher testing. But such accountability measures are necessary in order to ensure that the reading and literacy methods used actually work.

In the next decade, it’s expected that public school districts will have to hire a whopping 2.2 million new teachers to replace retiring ones. Training those teachers adequately will be a daunting task. With the kind of community concern shown by philanthropists like Arnold Beckman and Barbara and Roger Rossier, Southern California has a better chance to get it right.