We’ve all had great teachers who opened new worlds, maybe even changed our lives. What made them so good?

Everyone agrees that a great teacher can have an enormous impact. Yet we still don’t know what, precisely, makes a teacher great. Is it a matter of natural-born charisma? Or does great teaching require something more? Building a Better Teacher introduces a new generation of educators who are revealing the hidden science behind their art. A former principal studies the country’s best teachers and discovers a common set of techniques to help children pay attention. Two math teachers videotape a year of lessons and develop a new approach that has nine-year-olds writing sophisticated mathematical proofs. Through their stories—and the hilarious and heartbreaking theater that unfolds between children and teachers every day—Elizabeth Green explores the dynamics of truly effective teaching. Exploring the astonishingly diverse skills exceptional teachers must develop, Green provides a new way for parents to judge what their children need in the classroom—and considers how to make every teacher great.

Editorial Reviews

Review 
“We romanticize teachers, and we vilify them, but we don’t do much to help. This beautifully written, defiantly hopeful book points the way to a better future for American teachers and the children they teach.” (Paul Tough, bestselling author of How Children Succeed)

About the Author 
Elizabeth Green has written for the New York Times Magazine and many other publications. The cofounder, CEO, and editor-in-chief of Chalkbeat and former Spencer Fellow at the Columbia School of Journalism, she lives in Brooklyn, New York.