At the Closing General Session, Harry Wong, coauthor of The First Days of School, called upon hundreds of children from the San Antonio schools to help him make a simple point: Good teachers are the heart and soul of education. The children's spirited singing and dancing demonstrated the results of effective teaching, Wong pointed out.
Wong cited research to make the case that good teaching, not "faddish" programs, has the greatest impact on student achievement. He advocated using induction programs to create a culture of effective teachers.
An induction program, Wong said, is "a highly structured training program that occurs before the first day of school—for two to five days—in which you run [newly hired teachers] through a classroom workshop situation." During the program, teachers are trained in the mission, philosophy, and culture of the school district. They also learn techniques that help them become effective teachers who boost student achievement.
The purpose of induction is "to reduce the intensity of transition for all these brand-new teachers coming into our profession," Wong said. "Once you teach them how to be effective, hang onto them," he urged. "After a few years, you as principal will have a culture of effective teachers on your staff."
"In 10 years, we will have two million [new] teachers out of three million teachers in America," Wong said. "All we need to do in the next 10 years is to train these teachers to become effective, knowledgeable, skillful teachers, and we will automatically reform education—at a fraction of the cost that we sink into programs."