Could the Right Teacher Turn Snooki into a Top Student?

NBC's Education Nation has focused national attention on education. As part of that national focus, one of the more insightful pieces of commentary came from Lawrence O'Donnell of MSNBC who declared, “I think Snooki highlights the problem in public education."

Referring to all of the characters on the television show Jersey Shore, he added, "What teacher could possibly have reached anyone of them, to get any one of their scores up, in any subject?"

O'Donnell suggests that some things are beyond a teacher's control and that it might take more than teachers to improve the achievement of the stars of Jersey Shore. You might say that Snooki, who was recently hospitalized for alcohol poisoning after partying too hard in a Miami club, is not that much different from any child who suffers from problems that teacher could not address alone.

The Gates Foundation, along with others, argues that we must improve teaching because teachers are the single most important factor in improving student achievement.

But  if we let student achievement rest only the shoulders of teachers, we let everyone else off the hook for the problems that students bring with them to school.

Poverty, for instance, has an enormous impact on student achievement. Can we blame teachers for not overcoming it if their students' test scores do not go up? Or should we blame policy makers who put all their efforts into trying to improve teaching, but ignore poverty and do nothing to address it?

Of course a skilled, hard-working teacher could get a student like Snooki interested in learning, but that does not necessarily mean that such a student would move to the top of her class. Strong teachers try to help all of their students make progress - but can we blame teachers if their students' gains aren't adequate? Or, are there other factors contributing to how students perform in school?

We need to look beyond school walls, and not look to teachers as the only solution to all of the problems with student achievement.

Photo credit: elgin.jessica