- Posted by David on December 31, 2008
PTAs Are Helping to Cover Cost of Books, Other Supplies; Paying to Keep a Teacher Aide
Public schools across the country, hurt by state- and local-government cutbacks, are tapping an alternative source of cash: Mom and Dad.
Parent groups and local nonprofit organizations have long raised money for activities like class trips, school dances and after-school clubs. But many parents say they now are shelling out for core curricular items that were once publicly funded -- from classroom supplies to teachers' salaries.
This fall, a parent group in Columbia, S.C., bought 100 dictionaries for a middle-school teacher who had requested them. In Kentucky, the Middletown Elementary School parent-teacher association has been discussing helping to pay the salary of a teacher aide whose job might get cut. And in Sunrise, Fla., the Sawgrass Elementary School PTA is kicking in $3,000 for news magazines that the district used to buy for classroom use. The group also is considering eliminating funding for specialized after-school clubs to free up money for classroom study programs.
Teachers' Helpers
- As schools lose out to government cutbacks, parents are being asked to help more.
- PTAs can fight "fund-raising fatigue" by planning one big drive rather than many small ones.
- Parents can offer time instead of money. Hours helping teachers or students go a long way.
"There's no question that PTAs are having to reprioritize," says Michael Ryan, president of the Sawgrass Elementary PTA. "It couldn't come at a worse time for us in many respects since fund raising is so difficult because of the broad economic issues."
Sawgrass Elementary is part of the Broward County Public School District, the sixth-largest in the country, which is expecting a $100 million reduction in state funding for the 2009-2010 academic year, according to district superintendent James Notter. That amount would be twice the size of the budget cut of just two years ago, he says.
Many school districts are facing similar cuts as governments run up deficits. Some 41 states are projecting midyear budget shortfalls this fiscal year, compared with just seven states a year ago, according to a survey by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a nonprofit research group. If current trends continue, combined state deficits for next fiscal year will be around $145 billion, compared with the $89 billion shortfall estimated for the current fiscal year, the center calculates.
The Iowa City Community School District, which serves 11,000 students, won't be receiving $783,000 from the state it had already budgeted for this school year, says superintendent Lane Plugge. School officials expect to tap reserves from local property-tax revenues to continue providing programs and services in coming months.
Also digging deeper is the Iowa City Community School District Foundation, a nonprofit that traditionally supports non-core student enrichment programs. Now, the group is seeing a big uptick in requests from teachers for books to supplement library collections and computer gear that the district typically used to fund, says Jacki Brennan, the foundation's executive director. Last year, the foundation was able to come through with half of the funds for $130,000 in requests from teachers for supplies and core programs. This year, "I anticipate lots more requests, way more than we can fund," Ms. Brennan says.
Strapped Parents
As schools lean more on parent groups, those groups, too, are affected by leaner times. In Oregon, the nonprofit Lake Oswego School District Foundation is lowering its fund-raising goal this year to $1.5 million from $2.2 million last year as local residents seek to save more and spend less. Middletown Elementary's PTA in Kentucky says donations are about one-third lower than at this time last year, even after an extra fund-raiser. And in Colorado, the Poudre School District Foundation says it is hearing from donors that they'll likely be giving less this year.
A survey by California PTA, a statewide group, of about 500 PTA presidents in the state showed that nearly two-thirds of the groups have been asked by schools this year to pitch in more money for basic supplies and programs, from pencils and books to arts programs.
"One of the things we've always said to our members is, 'Your purpose is not to be a cash cow'" to cover regular school expenses, says Jan Harp Domene, president of the National Parent Teacher Association, an umbrella organization. "But we know they are playing a critical part in making sure children still have services that were once part of the budget, from music programs to adequate custodial supplies. These are not frills."
As local PTAs play a bigger role in funding school activities, the National PTA is reminding members in organization publications to adhere to fund-raising guidelines that aim to avert potential conflicts of interest and liabilities. Among the guidelines: PTAs should obtain a broad consensus in deciding what activities to sponsor. Local groups also should keep projects at arm's length -- providing schools with earmarked donations, for instance, rather than dealing directly with contractors.
Some groups are concerned that increased reliance on parents for funding can create inequities "because not all parent and community groups can pitch in to backfill services in the same way," says Pam Brady, president of California PTA.
To minimize this, National PTA encourages local groups to avoid making donations to programs such as science clubs or band boosters that wouldn't be shared by everyone at the school. "Donations should provide for all children," Ms. Domene says. Still, she says, some inequity is inevitable since parent participation in low-income communities is generally lower than in wealthier ones.
Other parents worry that increased PTA funding of core school items will in the long run encourage further cuts by school boards "if we're here making up the difference," says Mr. Ryan of the Sawgrass PTA. "Pragmatically, though, none of us are willing to take a stand and say 'We won't provide it this year.'"
Onus on School Boards
But other PTA's are doing just that. The Eldorado Community School PTA in Santa Fe, N.M., this year has put the brakes on funding teacher salaries after it raised $61,000 last year to save a physical-education instructor's job. "After that we decided we're not going to pay district responsibilities like salaries" because of concern that it was setting a precedent that could not be maintained, says PTA president Kathy Ritschel. To the district, "we said, 'You guys figure it out.'"
Write to Anne Marie Chaker at anne-marie.chaker@wsj.com
Copyright 2008 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved
- Posted by David on December 23, 2008
Tuesday, December 23, 2008 3:17 AM
By MIKE CURTIN
In 1970, about 75 cents of each dollar collected in Franklin County property taxes went to support schools. Today, that share is about 65 cents.
What happened?
Within a generation, we've decided lots of good causes deserve tax support, and we've funded most of them from the property tax.
Semi-annual property tax bills on about 433,000 Franklin County parcels soon will be mailed. The bills include a breakdown of where the money goes.
However, the bills reveal nothing about how property-tax distributions have shifted over time.
Although tax allocations differ across Ohio's 88 counties, it's generally true that school districts face more competition than ever for their share of the property-tax pie.
In Franklin County, until 1976 there was no property tax for the Columbus Metropolitan Library. Until 1985, no levy for the Columbus Zoo. Until 1992, no levy for services for senior citizens.
And, since 1980, voters have approved more-generous levies for abused and neglected children, the mentally retarded and mental-health services.
We've doubled the slice of the property-tax pie going to Franklin County Children's Services, and more than doubled it for the Board of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities. Ditto for the Alcohol, Drug Addiction and Mental Health Services Board.
All of these agencies provide marvelous and sometimes life-saving services. Voters seldom have rejected their levy appeals.
Now, as the state faces severe budget constraints, many tax-dependent agencies will be losing some of their state support. They will assess whether local taxpayers are willing to pay more to preserve and possibly expand services.
On some fronts, the trend already is evident. Before the state froze library funding in 2002, about a fourth of Ohio's 251 library systems levied a local property tax. Now, more than a third do.
Expect to see more tax pressure among Ohio's 66 senior-services agencies, 62 park districts, 54 ADAMH boards, and on down the list.
At some point, policymakers must pay more attention to the cumulative effect all this property-tax pressure has on the schools.
"I don't think there's been much discussion" of the erosion of schools' share of the property-tax pie, observed Mark Real, president of KidsOhio.org, a nonpartisan group dedicated to improving public education in Ohio. "I don't think this is widely realized."
He believes school districts have been more focused on the effects of Ohio's phase-out of the personal property tax and the shifting burden from businesses to individuals.
Many school leaders have noticed the trend in property-tax sharing but haven't complained much, said Thomas Ash, director of governmen-tal relations for the Buckeye Association of School Administrators. "So many of these other government or quasi-government entities have only one source to go to," Ash said.
For decades in Ohio, "the standard we used was about 75 percent of property tax revenue went to the schools," Ash said. In recent years, as more service providers have taken bigger shares, "the overriding sentiment is that there is little we can do about that," he said.
It's one more reason educators have been vocal about finding a state-based funding solution for Ohio's 600-plus school districts.
However, it's highly unlikely the state can dramatically reduce local school districts' reliance on the property tax. Since 1821, it's been the financial bedrock of Ohio's schools. In 2007, property taxes generated $9.5 billion for local and joint vocational school districts.
In recent decades, the state has done much to supplement school funding, especially in low-property-wealth districts. But local property taxes still account for almost half of all nonfederal school funding.
Recent trends indicate schools will continue to face heightened competition for those property-tax dollars.
Mike Curtin is associate publisher emeritus of The Dispatch.
mcurtin@dispatch.com
- Posted by David on December 8, 2008
By Neil Howe
Sunday, December 7, 2008; B01
It is the prerogative of every generation of graybeards to look down the age ladder and accuse today's young of sloth, greed, selfishness -- and stupidity. We hear daily jeremiads from baby boomers who wonder how kids who'd rather listen to Linkin Park and play "Grand Theft Auto III" than solve equations or read books can possibly grow up to become leaders of the world's superpower. The recent publication of "The Dumbest Generation" by Mark Bauerlein of Emory University epitomizes the genre. His subtitle -- "How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future" -- says it all.
Generational putdowns, Bauerlein's included, are typically long on attitude and short on facts. But the underlying question is worth pursuing: If the data are objectively assessed, which age-slice of today's working-age adults really does deserve to be called the dumbest generation?
The answer may surprise you. No, it's not today's college-age kids, nor even today's family-starting 30-somethings. And no, it's not the 60-year-olds who once grooved at Woodstock. Instead, it's Americans in their 40s, especially their late 40s -- those born from the late 1950s to the mid-1960s. They straddle the boundary line between last-wave boomers and first-wave Generation Xers. The political consultant Jonathan Pontell labels them "Generation Jones."
Whatever you call them (I'll just call them early Xers), the numbers are clear: Compared with every other birth cohort, they have performed the worst on standardized exams, acquired the fewest educational degrees and been the least attracted to professional careers. In a word, they're the dumbest.
Obviously, we're talking averages. No one would apply the word "dumb" to Barack Obama (born in 1961) or Timothy F. Geithner, his nominee for secretary of the Treasury (born in the same month). Yet the president-elect himself has written eloquently about how hard it was for him and his peers to obtain a serious education during their dazed-and-confused teen years. Like it or not, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (born in 1964), who stumbled over basic civics facts during her vice presidential run, is more representative of this group. Early Xers are the least bookish CEOs and legislators the United States has seen in a long while. They prefer sound bites over seminars, video clips over articles, street smarts over lofty diplomas. They are impatient with syntax and punctuation and citations -- and all the other brainy stuff they were never taught.
Want proof? Let's start with the long-term results of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), which is housed within the U.S. Department of Education. Considered the gold standard in assessing K-12 students, the NAEP has been in continuous operation for decades. Here's the bottom line: On both the reading and the math tests, and at all three tested ages (9, 13 and 17), the lowest-ever scores in the history of the NAEP were recorded by children born between 1961 and 1965.
The same pattern shows up in SAT scores. The SAT reached its all-time high in 1963, when it tested the 1946 birth cohort (including such notables as Gilda Radner and Oliver Stone). Then it fell steeply for 17 straight years, hitting its all-time low in 1980, when it tested the 1963 cohort (Mike Myers, Quentin Tarantino). Ever since, the SAT has been gradually if haltingly on the rise, paralleling improvements in the NAEP. In 2005, teens born in 1988 scored better on the combined SAT than any teens born since 1956 -- and better on the math SAT than any teens born since 1951.
Some critics say that the average SAT score should be adjusted for the share of all teens taking the test, since a larger share "dilutes" the average with lower-aptitude kids. Good point, but it only deepens the mystery. Early Xers have both the lowest average score and the lowest share of test-takers. The share taking the SAT peaked at about 40 percent in the mid-1960s, fell to a low of only 30 percent around 1980 and has since been rising again -- to a record high of more than 45 percent during the last few years.
These numbers make the recent rise in SAT scores by the new Millennial generation seem even more impressive -- and the early Xer low even more disappointing. With a lot more kids getting higher scores, the average SAT scores of Ivy League undergrads have jumped since the late 1970s -- from 1230 to 1425 at the University of Pennsylvania, for example. Average scores for nearly all graduate exams have also been rising since the early 1990s, including the GRE, the LSAT, the GMAT and the MCAT.
Now let's turn to education and career outcomes. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Americans born from 1958 to 1962 have the highest share that has never completed high school among all age brackets between 25 and 60. They also have the lowest share with a four-year college degree among all age brackets between 30 and 60, and they're tied for lowest in graduate degrees. Pushed by their passion for enlightenment (and by their fear of being drafted for Vietnam), first-wave baby boomers became obsessive degree achievers. That drive dropped off sharply during the next 10 or 15 years. Less-degreed than their elders, early Xers represent an anomalous back-step in educational progress.
Once early Xers entered the labor force in the 1980s, the Bureau of Labor Statistics noticed something else: For the first time in decades, the share of young adults entering professions such as law, medicine and accounting began to drop. Around the same time, economists began to worry about the stagnation of median income and the decline of household assets among Americans in their 20s. Today, they're worrying about the economic stagnation of Americans in their 40s.
So what explains the smartness deficit (and the related income gap) that has tracked these early Xers throughout their lives? Some say it's demographic pressure. Early Xers were born into large families at the tail end of the baby boom, with a relatively large share of higher-order siblings (just as first-wave boomers have a relatively large share of first-borns). As they grew up, they got crowded out in the competition for parental attention, good teachers and good colleges. Later on, by the 1980s, they arrived too late to enter the most lucrative professions and the cushiest corporations, by now glutted with boomer yuppies. Their only alternative was to pioneer the pragmatic, free-agent, low-credential lifestyle for which Generation X has since become famous.
Yet sheer numbers aren't the whole story. The early Xers' location in history also plays a large role. Quite simply, they were children at a uniquely unfavorable moment -- a time when the divorce rate accelerated, when the media image of children turned demonic and when the "latch-key" lesson for kids stressed self-reliance rather than trust in others. By the time they entered middle and high school, classrooms were opened, standards were lowered, and supervision had disappeared. Compared with earlier- or later-born students at the same age, these kids were assigned less homework, watched more TV and took more drugs.
Most early Xers know the score. Graduating (or not) from school in the early 1980s, they saw themselves billboarded as a bad example by blue-ribbon commissions eager to reform the system for the next generation, the Millennials. Angling for promotions in the early 1990s, they got busy with self-help guides (yes, those "For Dummies" books) to learn all the subjects they were never taught the first time around. And today, as midlife parents, they have become ultra-protective of their own teenage kids and ultra-demanding of their kids' schools, as if to make double-certain it won't happen again.
Does America need to worry that this group is taking over as our national leaders? Probably not. Early Xers have certain strengths that many more learned people lack: They're practical and resilient, they handle risk well, and they know how to improvise when even the experts don't know the answer. As the global economy craters, they won't keep leafing through a textbook. They may be a little rough around the edges, but their style usually gets the job done.
Just don't tell the early Xers that today's youth are the dumbest generation. Not only is that jibe factually untrue, it also calls into question all the family sacrifices the early Xers are now making on behalf of these youth. Let Generation Jones keep the "dumbest" label. They know it fits, and they're tough enough to take it.
Neil Howe is the co-author of "Millennials Rising" and other books on generational issues.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/05/AR2008120502601_pf.html
- Posted by David on December 5, 2008
A Cleveland teacher would be the first to tell you that not much learning went on in his high school classroom last spring.
Students typically chatted with each other or joined an ongoing card game in the back of the room while he tried to get them to do their work. Kids who weren't even supposed to be in the class walked in, sat down and were dealt a hand.
On a particularly bad day in March, one of the teens grabbed the teacher's briefcase -- containing his medication and checkbook -- and raced out the door and down the hall.
When the teacher's attempts to gain control of the class failed, he ended up concentrating on the handful of students who were paying attention.
"I feel bad for the ones trying to work and equally bad for the ones misbehaving," said the teacher, who has been with the Cleveland district since 1999. "They're all losing out."
Study after study has shown that an effective teacher is the most important ingredient in raising student achievement, even helping to offset challenges like low family income.
Ohio has beefed up its licensing procedures to deal with teachers who commit a crime or display blatant professional misconduct. But too often when teachers aren't effective -- whether they're at fault or not -- nothing is done about it.
The teacher may blame the principal. The principal may blame the union contract. And just about everybody blames a typically weak system of evaluating teachers.
But when all the finger-pointing is set aside, the fact remains that it's difficult and expensive to get rid of a veteran teacher who isn't getting the job done.
Deborah Delisle, head of the Cleveland Heights-University Heights School District, said it cost over $200,000 the last time she went through the process with an ineffective teacher. That included the salary the teacher earned while the district tried various forms of mentoring and coaching, said Delisle, who becomes state superintendent on Monday.
The price tag was even higher for the Lakewood district in 2006, when students accused a teacher of making offensive comments about them in class. That case ended up in court and ultimately cost more than $350,000 -- the bulk of it spent on lawyers -- before a settlement was reached and the teacher stepped down.
Small wonder then that Cleveland schools CEO Eugene Sanders says he has gone through the full process for only one teacher in the two years he has headed the more than 3,900-teacher district.
"If you're facing a $200,000 to $300,000 legal battle, then you get into the question of whether or not that is an appropriate use of the district's financial base," he said.
The rarity of teacher firings provided ammunition for a national campaign this year by a Washington-based group called the Center for Union Facts. In television and newspaper ads -- as well as on a seven-story billboard in New York City's Times Square -- the group sought nominations for a "Ten Worst (Union-Protected) Teachers" contest.
In the end, names of the "winners" weren't publicized, but the effort succeeded in grabbing the media's attention. The center's communications director, Sarah Longwell, said it also struck a chord with ordinary people who are frustrated by the profession's "entrenched mediocrity."
"The biggest thing we saw was how many people wrote in and said, 'Here's a teacher that doesn't seem to care about the job,' " she said. "There were some outrageous examples, but it was really more about them being kind of checked out."
Critics blasted the campaign as anti-union. And superintendents point out that the statistics on fired teachers are misleading since many more are "counseled out" of the profession. Nobody documents the number of floundering teachers who are persuaded to quit without going through a formal dismissal process. (Related item: In New York City, teacher deemed unfit to teach are shuffled off to a building where they're paid to do nothing.)
Teachers admit that problems exist
Even teachers say it's too hard to get rid of the rotten apples.
More than half the teachers responding to an Education Sector survey this year said that in their district it's difficult and time-consuming to remove clearly ineffective teachers who have a continuing contract, otherwise known as tenure. And almost half said they know a teacher in their own building who fits that description.
The surveyed teachers said the most common tool for assessing quality -- a formal observation and evaluation -- is inadequate. Only about a quarter said their most recent evaluation was "useful and effective."
When it comes to tenure, about 70 percent said it's just a formality rather than an indication of whether a teacher is good or not.
The picture is the same in Ohio. In a state-commissioned report two years ago, a group called Achieve -- created by the nation's governors and business leaders -- concluded that "many teachers remain unclear about what is expected of them and have little feedback on how they are performing."
"And regardless of accomplishment, teachers are generally treated the same; once tenured, there are few rewards for the most accomplished and rare consequences for consistent underperformers."
As in the majority of states, tenure in Ohio generally comes after three years of experience.
The state requires new teachers to have at least two evaluations in the year when their contract might not be renewed. But like about three dozen other states, it does not mandate annual evaluations for tenured teachers -- they merely have to be done "on a continuing basis."
No consequences are outlined for negative evaluations; that's left up to the individual district and its contract with the union.
Look at the national studies and you will see the same adjective pop up over and over when it comes to evaluations: meaningless. Their superficiality led researchers Thomas Toth and Robert Rothman to refer to them as "drive-bys."
Toth and Rothman examined the country's 50 largest public school districts last January for the think tank Education Sector. They found observations often consisted of a single classroom visit by an administrator untrained in evaluation and unfamiliar with the subject matter being taught, not to mention busy with myriad other duties.
The evaluators frequently use a checklist that covers things like how the teacher is dressed and whether class starts on time but has little to do with the quality of instruction. There's rarely any follow-up on how a teacher can improve.
In a study of Chicago public schools by the New Teacher Project, "principals admitted that they inflate evaluation ratings because they do not value the instrument and because they want to avoid the cumbersome grievance or dismissal process."
From 2003 to 2006, 93 percent of Chicago teachers were rated excellent or superior while less than 1 percent were deemed unsatisfactory. During that time, 79 percent of the city's 87 failing schools issued no unsatisfactory ratings.
Plenty of blame to go around
What parents can do
Experts say that good communication between teachers and parents can help a child succeed in school. Tips for parents:
• Learn as much as you can about your child's school. Get a copy of the school handbook. Ask questions. If the school has a Web site, check out the information there. Attend PTA or PTO meetings, or ask for a copy of the minutes.
• Stay in contact with your child's teacher, starting at the beginning of the school year. Tell teachers if the child has special needs or if you've noticed a significant shift in your child's behavior or academic performance. Use e-mail to communicate if it's not practical for you to visit the school regularly.
• If your child is struggling with schoolwork, contact the teacher immediately and request a meeting so the problem doesn't get out of hand. Try to work cooperatively with the teacher to solve the problem before appealing to the principal.
• If you don't agree with a school rule or the teacher's assignments, set up a meeting. Don't argue with the teacher in front of your child. Prepare for the meeting with specific examples and remain calm. If you're still not satisfied with the teacher's explanation, ask for a meeting with the principal or superintendent.
Source: U.S. Department of Education
The Cleveland high school teacher would argue that the chaos in his classes was the fault of the school system's top-down management system and the "climate of disrespect" it has created.
In that teacher's perfect world, administrators would give teachers the support they need and then get out of their way. That's directly opposite the approach advocated by groups like the Fordham Institute, which says principals need more power, including the right to hire and fire staffers.
Last year, after clashing with an administrator, the Cleveland teacher spent a couple of months in what he refers to as "the monkey room." That was an area in the downtown administration building where teachers accused of an infraction would sit -- sometimes for months -- while their cases were investigated.
Such holding pens are common in big urban districts; New York City's version has been referred to as "the rubber room." But Cleveland officials have since done away with theirs, instead assigning teachers to nonclassroom duties while they're on paid leave.
That's only one of several changes under way in the Cleveland district. David Quolke, Cleveland Teachers Union president, said the new contract that took effect in July 2007 uses clearer language in the evaluation process and sets up a Peer Assistance and Review program to ensure effectiveness.
Getting teachers involved in coaching and evaluating other teachers is "a way for us to start taking ownership of the profession," Quolke said.
Cleveland's peer review program is just gearing up. So far, 27 teachers have volunteered to participate because they see a need to improve. They will join 11 others who got unsatisfactory evaluations last year and were nominated for intervention by their principals.
"On the whole, teachers have been very willing to accept the program," said MaryAnn Fredrick, an officer with the union. "Teachers who are having trouble know it, and it's a relief to get help."
Toledo program is national model
Peer Assistance and Review was pioneered by the Toledo School District in 1981 and is still lauded by many as the best way to help both new teachers and struggling veterans.
Since 1981, about 70 school districts around the country have adopted programs that pair effective, veteran teachers with struggling ones to improve the quality of teaching and learning. A study released in October by Policy Matters Ohio takes a closer look at four such programs in the Buckeye State.
In fact, Ohio-based Policy Matters recently recommended that Gov. Ted Strickland and the Ohio Department of Education develop a voluntary pilot program to expand the Toledo plan statewide. In addition to Cleveland, about 70 districts nationwide -- including Cincinnati, Columbus and Brunswick -- already use some version.
Both of the state's major teachers unions have endorsed the approach. But critics say that in addition to being costly, such programs shove out very few veterans.
Over eight years in Brunswick, there were 23 interventions with experienced teachers and seven were dismissed, not renewed or left on their own, according to Policy Matters. Over 22 years in Columbus, there were 352 interventions and 89 departed.
The goal is not to get rid of teachers but to support and guide them to do a better job, said Audrey Fox, a consulting teacher in Toledo's program.
The Cleveland Heights-University Heights district took a similar approach when officials there decided to provide an alternative evaluation. Teachers will be able to choose whether they want to use the more in-depth, three-tier system.
The first tier is for all teachers new to the district. The second is for tenured teachers who want to expand their skills through research or independent study. The third is for tenured teachers who are having difficulty in the classroom.
"The biggest leap for teachers is admitting it's OK to be reflective about your practice, it's OK to need to improve," said Laurel Chapman, the district's program specialist in instructional support.
Chapman said there are many reasons teachers can have a bad year. Perhaps they've been assigned to a new subject or grade level. Or something could be happening in their personal lives, like a family member's illness.
Even those at the top of their game may not stay there.
"Nobody lives at an advanced level forever," she said. "It's something to aspire to but you're there on and off.
"A teacher is never a finished product."
http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2008/11/good_teachers_are_key_to_stude.html