The achievement gap

And there is ongoing dialogue about why American students do not perform as well as their European and Asian counterparts on a variety of tests.

Almost all acknowledge that educating youngsters is complex and there is no one easy answer. There are challenges because of new immigrants’ lack of English language skills, poverty, illiteracy in the home and the number of single low-income parents who are overwhelmed.

There is the problem of peer pressure when many Hispanic and African-American youth say being a good student means abandoning one’s friends and acting "white.” The list of problems goes on and on. And so does the list of exceptions — kids who make it despite the worst of circumstances.

One of the more interesting research projects, called "How the world’s best performing schools come out on top,” comes from McKinsey and Company. You can read their report online. Researchers studied 25 of the world’s school systems including poor, medium and affluent countries, to examine what high performing schools have in common. Here are the three main attributes the high performing systems share: 1) they get the right people to become teachers; 2) they develop them into effective instructors; and 3) they ensure that every child is able to benefit from excellent instruction.

McKinsey found students placed with high-performing teachers will progress three times as fast as those placed with low performers.

In the primary grades, the loss in progress with a bad teacher is irretrievable. Parents could tell you that without a fancy research project.

But here’s the most revealing part of the study. Top performing school systems consistently attract more able people into the teaching profession. Entry to teacher training is highly selective, like law and medical school. A process is developed to select the right applicants from this exceptional pool to become teachers and to pay them good starting salaries. Not everyone who wants to become a teacher can become one. Certain tests and criteria must be met.

Teach for America, a program which takes the top graduates of Ivy League schools, and after intensive training places them in the nation’s most difficult schools has improved performance of students. So have similar programs — the Boston Teachers Residency, New York Teaching Fellows and Chicago Teaching Fellows which train outstanding professionals in other fields to be teachers. These special programs are putting into practice some of the key recommendations of the McKinsey analysis. But they are the exception in the United States, where we often recruit teachers from the bottom third of college-bound high school students instead of the top third. Also, many of the top students chosen for these programs commit to teaching only a few years. Salaries are the same as other teachers in the school and not competitive enough to keep "the top one third” in the profession. McKinsey says selection of an inadequate teacher can result in up to 40 years of bad teaching.

At the California summit, one of the experts said teachers in underperforming schools are not only culturally unfamiliar with their students, they are often the least seasoned and skilled at teaching. Both McKinsey and state educators agree that poverty is not the main problem.

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Here’s a Cinderella story close to home. At Lincoln High School in San Francisco a great teacher has inspired greatness in his students. George Cachionos who teaches an advanced biotech class connected five of his top students to a UCSF team. They competed in a world-wide competition, the international Genetically Engineered Machine, and came in as a finalist. Sixth in the world in a professional competition! One of the students summed it up best. You can do great things even though you don’t attend the most prestigious school.

"Anyone with the want and dedication can do something like this,” said student Robert Ovadia.

He’s so right. It not only takes a great teacher, but a student who is willing to work hard and has the want and the dedication. Even great teachers can’t do it alone.

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What a lucky break for San Mateo County and Supervisor Jerry Hill! Recently termed out Millbrae mayor and councilman Marc Hershman decided to give up the practice of law and become chief legislative aide to Hill.

Hershman has served as an attorney for 20 years but will be continuing with his main love, public service.

As a law school student, he worked in the office of U.S. Rep. Tom Lantos, D-San Mateo. Later on he was an aide for the late Sacramento Congressman Bob Matsui in Washington, D.C. For Jerry Hill, it brings a staff person well respected in Millbrae and the county onto his team as Hill faces a contest for the state Assembly from two well-connected Millbrae residents.

Gina Papan, new mayor of Millbrae, and Richard Holober, community college trustee and husband of another former Millbrae mayor Nadia Holober are also in the race. If Hershman has his eye on an eventual seat on the Board of Supervisors when Supervisor Mark Church retires, his new job will provide a great launching pad.

Sue Lempert is the former mayor of San Mateo. Her column runs every Monday. She can be reached at sue@smdailyjournal.com.