Researchers studied what great teachers do differently than good teachers. They defined great teachers as teachers whose students began the year several years behind academically and ended the year caught up or ahead. Researchers found that Great Teachers:


1.Set Big Goals – “teachers know on the 1st day where they want their students to be on the last day. The goals create urgency, focus, and alignment of effort necessary to make tremendous progress”

Crystal Jones “rallied her 1st graders around the idea that by the end of the year they were going to “read, write, and do math like 3rd graders.””

“Meg Stewart challenged her students…to “double their learning” and demonstrate two years of academic growth in one year.”



2.Get students invested in learning – Their students entered the class thinking they were “dumb” and that no amount of hard work would change that. Exceptional teachers convince students that hard work makes all the difference.

These teachers deliberately create a welcoming environment where academic success is highly valued.

They infuse the class with messages supporting academic achievement and clearly communicate student’s academic progress to them.

They empower students with choice and responsibility in their own learning.



3.Purposeful Planning - The most successful teachers are backwards planners. They begin any endeavor, from lesson planning to classroom-management by asking, what result do I want? And How will I know I’ve gotten it?

Julia King’s students average gains of 2.4 – 1.7 years in math. She envisions exactly what her students will know and be able to do at the end of the year and then organizes the units for the year. Each week she looks at the objectives for the unit, writes 5 assessment questions per objective, and only then plans her lesson.



4.What does it mean to effectively implement instruction in the classroom?

“Effective implementation, they insist, is about the adjustments you make to the plan to ensure that you stay on track toward your objectives.”



5.Continually Improving – Teachers who are getting the greatest results treat their classrooms as laboratories

“…If they’re not mastering concepts they need to master, then I need to learn how to teach them more effectively.”



6.Working Relentlessly – dramatically effective teachers say, “If I take my big goals seriously, there is just not enough time in the day, not enough resources in the classroom, to get it all done.” Then, they go on to describe how they find more time and resources.

They have their students in class before and after school, at lunch, and on Saturdays...they do whatever it takes to ensure that students succeed.




Farr, S. (2010). Leadership, not magic. Educational Leadership, 68, 28-33.