One of the big myths of education, in my opinion, is that a good teacher is a good teacher is a good teacher. I am able to be a good teacher if I have a good curriculum that I’m very familiar with in a subject area that I know a lot about. I become a bad teacher when I’m forced to teach a bad curriculum, especially if it’s in an area that I don’t know a lot about. When I taught character ed (not my major) with a wretched curriculum several years ago, classes were wretched and I’m sure those students thought I was a bad teacher. When I get to teach world history, my forte, and have time to build my own curriculum (a massive undertaking that few ed leaders seem to appreciate) I often feel I’m doing a very formidable job. Curriculum matters a lot more than most lay people seem to realize.

It’s not hard to make any curriculum work, and as a teacher you’ve got a lot of control over how you deliver the curriculum.

I guess you’ve never heard of Open Court Reading, Direct Instruction or Everyday Mathematics?

What puzzles me, though, is why the teachers feel this is imposed by others. It’s not hard to make any curriculum work, and as a teacher you’ve got a lot of control over how you deliver the curriculum.

Now *THAT* I can believe

So it is more a case that the teachers (a) understand what the word ‘ensures’ means, and (b) realized that answering the question was asked would generate ‘strongly disagree’ answers across the board. Realizing this, the teachers may have tried to ‘help’ the survey authors by guessing what the question might have been if the survey authors had written a meaningful question. Then, the teachers answered *this* guessed-at question.

Yes, this would not surprise me.

In which case, yes, the survey is at fault (or, more accurately, the humans who wrote it are at fault), *AND* the results are mostly likely close to meaningless.

-Mark Roulo

If those who wrote the question really meant “guarantees,” then wouldn’t they expect a “no” across the board? Isn’t it obvious that no single factor guarantees students’ academic achievement? And isn’t it a silly question, then?

And how could someone “agree somewhat” or “disagree somewhat” with the statement without reinterpreting “ensures”? You can’t partially ensure something.

Or perhaps some took “agree strongly” to mean that curriculum plays a large role; “agree somewhat” to mean that it plays a role in combination with other factors; etc.

Isn’t it likely that those taking the poll read into the question, realizing that it was poorly written and that they would distort the survey results if they took it literally?

Are you seriously suggesting that a large percentage of “40,000 public school teachers in pre-K through 12″ don’t know what the word ‘ensures’ means?

This possibility didn’t even cross my mind …

-Mark Roulo

The largest percentages were in the “agree strongly” and “agree somewhat” categories (44 and 45 percent overall, respectively). And I wonder how many of those who answered “agree somewhat” or “disagree somewhat” were uncertain about the meaning of “ensures,” not about the importance of curriculum.

For a survey to mean much, it has to be written well, for starters.

There is no secret to improving education. You need leaders who keep everyone focused on teaching and learning. You need a great teacher in every classroom. You need a demanding curriculum. And you need a system of accountability. Great schools have all of these.

A high-quality curriculum taught by an incompetent teacher will not result in academic success for the students.

A high-quality curriculum is a very good thing, but it isn’t enough …

-Mark Roulo