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Wisconsin has instituted licensing requirements that also take actual classroom performance into account. Teacher-candidates must first pass a test in reading, writing, and mathematics, and, more importantly, also demonstrate speaking and listening skills. Kansas plans to enact a comparable program, which includes mentoring for rookie teachers. Similar moves are planned or already under way in New York, California, North Carolina, Indiana, and Arizona.

Connecticut, where Mathews and Avezzie teach, has pioneered performance-based assessment since the mid-1980s, when teachers were first required to submit a portfolio for evaluation during their second year of teaching. The requirement focuses on authentic teaching tasks, not the hypothetical scenarios posed in exams: Teachers must keep daily lesson logs over a period of seven to ten days, analyze examples of student work, and videotape two lesson segments.

"The tapes are a very rich performance sample," says Edith Hunsberger of New York’s education department, which is also requiring videotapes. They highlight the performance, delivery, and passion of teachers in the classroom, and "the good ones are exciting."

This performance-based approach might seem superficial at first—surely academic preparation outweighs empty enthusiasm—but educators agree that passion and dedication cannot happen without preparation. "You can have academic mastery with no passion, and that is not effective," says Patricia Graham, education professor at Harvard. But "it is extremely rare to have passion for an academic subject and not have a degree of mastery."

To be sure, this performance-based paradigm is not without its flaws. Mentoring programs are labor intensive and expensive, so states have been reluctant to fund them; only 10 states currently provide full or partial funding. Performance assessment is similarly expensive: "It takes 10 times as long to score a videotape as it takes to score an essay," says Hunsberger.

Ultimately, you need to be able to perform if you’re going to teach, and what actually happens in the classroom is what matters. Thinking this way offers America’s schools the greatest potential for finding—and keeping—teachers like Cynthia Avezzie and Susan Mathews.

Alexander Nguyen is a writing fellow at The American Prospect. From Washington Monthly (May 2000). Subscriptions: $39.95/yr. (12 issues) from 1611 Connecticut Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20009.

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