‘Quality teaching supports quality learning’

I am lucky to love my job as an investor. The commodity I buy into? Teenagers. Daily, I carefully read over their individual prospectuses, deciding where each will need some intellectual capital. Sometimes these investments occur when I sit with a student to review his or her writing, line by line.

Sometimes the investment is in a conglomerate—the entire class will observe me model a strong presentation. These daily investments have immeasurable gains and implications for our future Chico, state, country and world. They are sound, and will produce high yields so long as I continue to reflect and grow in my instructional practices.

The National Education Association’s 2004 report K-12 Education in the U.S. Economy cites a variety of returns on my daily investments. In a nutshell: Quality teaching supports quality learning. The state’s long-term economic interests are best served by increasing revenues to K-12 public education. Benefits for personal income, manufacturing investment and employment options rise through ongoing investment in K-12 schools. The human capital we gain through a more educated/informed electorate helps drive our economy forward. This study also found a positive correlation between the quality of K-12 schools and the value of homes in their respective areas.

My colleagues and I at Chico High School are focusing in on the quality of how we invest in Chico’s kids. In order for the returns above to come to fruition, we continue our research into instructional investments to key in on quality and rigorous learning. What if the Chico Unified School District decided to view its teachers—the entire educational program—not as a cost item that must be contained, but as an investment into the future of our kids and economy?

CUSD can do this in two ways: It can invest in our compensation packages so we can catch up with inflation after six years of lean budgets, and it can empower teachers by supporting our professional growth. These investments in continuing education of our practices will then return high yields on our human capital.

It makes sense to invest in teachers as we invest in the lives of more than 11,000 Chico students. Keeping our compensation packages competitive will help attract and retain only the best. It is a great investment to give teachers time to work together to solve our instructional dilemmas, to share best practices, and to support each other in researching these practices. Our kids are our future, and they deserve it.