It is undeniable that next to a parent, a schoolteacher has the greatest effect on a student’s academic success. It is the job of education reformers to seek out and enact policies that are best for the students; what is best for the students is having the most effective teachers possible.

Photo courtesy of slate.com

At a film screening of Waiting For Superman, hosted by Students For Education Reform (SFER) earlier this semester, one fact strongly supported this claim: one bad teacher can set back a student an entire year. A good teacher will teach 150 percent of the curriculum during a year, but a bad teacher will only get through 50 percent of the curriculum. Students with high performing teachers learn three times as much in a school year, but both teachers get paid the same (2010).

As students on a college campus, each and every one of us has experienced the impact of a good or a bad teacher. Each and every one of us can accredit our successes, or lack thereof, to these teachers.

As members of Students For Education Reform, we seek to support the efforts of the best teachers by validating their classroom accomplishments through commensurate rewards.

Building off of our own experiences, students on college campuses have most likely had a parent or teacher take a special interest in them. In SFER, our goal is to support policies that enable all students regardless of race, background, or socioeconomic status to experience that same impact.

We believe that great teachers deserve to be rewarded for their superior work as it aids in the narrowing of the vast achievement gap existent in our country. Ultimately, if we are able to reward teachers based on their merit, we can incentivize good teachers and encourage others to face the challenge of bringing each and every student to success.