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Factor school administration, parent support/ involvement/accountability for what they do to help and motivate their children, etc.

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I think that schools that provide GOOD staff development end up with better teachers. I started teaching in the mid-1980s. When I first started it was "Here's the key to your classroom. See you in June." Since the mid-1990s, I've seen far better staff development in schools. Where principals take the time for teachers to learn new methods, or to understand more about the way children learn, the teaching is always of a higher quality.

My biggest concern right now is that school budgets have been slashed, and there no longer any money for this kind of in service training.

I also think that more support staff can make a big difference. When I started teaching there was usually a reading teacher in every elementary school. Sometimes there was a math specialist as well and sometimes a staff developer. But in the mid-1990s we started to get many more out of classroom staff - reading recovery teachers, AIS teachers, etc.

Having more people in the building (not JUST smaller class size) means that there are more people to give individual attention to a child who is struggling.

Again, many of these positions have been cut recently, due to smaller school budgets. We are going back to the way it was when I first started in every way. And that is not a pretty picture.

People think that the schools improved because of the reliance on tests. Then they found out that the whole test score mythology was just that - mythology! But truthfully the school system DID get better in places. But not due to testing! It got better because of more staff and more in service training. And we're about to lose all of that!

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Ask parents. Ask students. Ask the best teachers themselves.

Have the best support help available. Have administrators who listen and don't just worry about budget concerns.

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Only the selfless or the slackers will stay in a system where teachers are constantly maligned - the former because they're called to the job (and you can't build a system around that) and the latter because they're so thick-skinned they don't care what others think about their performance; they're just in it for the paycheck (and you can't have people who are like that working with vulnerable children). Rather than look at students' test results, why aren't we looking at teachers' test results. Far too many in the system, including the current chancellor, were not very good students themselves.

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For a lot of people, teaching is a calling. having taught for 32 years, I can tell you that the good ones have some intangible quality I have always called "it". If you could identify and measure it you could go a long way to help education.

Class size is a function of age, maturity and subject. There is no one size fits all answer for education.

I love how people who have not been in the education field seem to think that they know how to fix all the problems. I don't presume to think I know how to fix Wall Street or Congress.

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Getting rid of a meglomaniac Mayor who wants to destroy Public Education and turn it into some distorted version of education that only a completely out of touch businessman would understand.
Bloomberg has driven out the best teachers I've known in my 18 year teaching career.

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Once talented educators are recruited into the system, the key to retention is a well constructed induction plan to continue to support new teachers through on-going training, mentorship, and opportunities for growth.

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Great teachers should be part of evaluating other teachers.

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I'm a parent - I think teachers need to be supported and principles should be educators, not managers.