funding. Has the direct relationship between education and economic growth been lost? On average, a high school graduate in Mississippi earns $6,316 more each year than a high school dropout. Roughly 16,100 students in Mississippi did not graduate from high school in 2011; the lost lifetime earnings for that class of dropouts alone total $1.6 billion (Alliance for Excellent Education, 2012). Mississippi is not alone in this crisis. With our nation ranking 13th among industrialized nations in college education graduation rates, every state faces serious education challenges. Over the last decades, while our country and state have been busy with other priorities, they have ignored or missed the compounding evidence that proves failure to educate our children. This failure contributes heavily to the United States’ increasing inability to compete successfully in world markets (Liepmann, 2010). Introducing aggressive new funds to transform education, President Obama announced a new education priority: A world-class education is the single most important factor in determining not just whether our kids can compete for the best jobs but whether America can out-compete countries around the world…. That’s why we’re working together to put an outstanding education within reach of every child (The White House, U.S. Department of Education, 2012). This new priority brings accountability for student performance squarely into the spotlight. Washington took a big step forward with No Child Left Behind (NCLB), tying annual yearly performance measures to federal dollars. While arguably not the most effective legislation, NCLB imposed accountability for student results. New federal grants motivate states to build education systems that teach children—and to quantitatively prove they do so. These grants insist on two features: (a) new ways to define and measure “effective” teaching, laying the foundation to remove ineffective teachers from classrooms, and (b) new compensation systems that reward teachers for their performance. Teachers are now front and center. Educators confirm that the single factor that impacts student learning most directly is effective teaching (Wright, Horn, & Sanders, 1997). Put an effective teacher in the classroom and students learn.
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