In my over 40 years in education, I have had the honor and pleasure of meeting and working with some exceptional organizations and educators. The Haberman Educational Foundation and Delia Stafford are certainly at the top of the list.
JP Associates is an educational professional development company that has worked with thousands of teachers and students since its inception almost 20 years ago. The research has clearly demonstrated that teacher quality is the number one factor affecting student acceleration. If our most naïve students have an ineffective teacher for two years in a row, the data shows that these students never catch up to their more accomplished and affluent peers.
If we are going to achieve positive change for all students, we must begin to focus more attention on the selection and training of our teachers. However, we can’t stop with the hiring of highly qualified teachers. Those teachers must receive the best possible professional development subsequent to their hiring. Both the selection process and the professional development must be based on scientific research. It is the combination of these two powerful processes that will lead to the positive change we need. It was this fact that brought the Haberman Foundation and JP Associates together.
Effective education offers a gateway to change for all students, regardless of race or socio-economic background. It is inexcusable to offer students the potential for that change and then not provide them with the best resources available to make that change a reality. Without high quality carefully trained teachers, that change is not possible. Haberman’s 50 years of research, provides schools with the tools they need to select quality people who possess the attributes of effective teachers.
Education is at the foundation of what makes America great. By helping other countries develop effective educational systems, not only do we share our wealth of both resources and information, but we also forge a bond with those in other nations seeking this same positive change. This bond and these changes that we seek are our best hope for a better and more peaceful tomorrow.
We wholeheartedly support the work of the Haberman International Policy Institute in Education and look forward to working them in this vital initiative.
