Teacher of the Year
Equity is the number one issue for America's number one teacher

National Teacher of the Year Betsy Rogers views poor school performance, often measured by student achievement, as a consequence of inequities in education.

“When schools aren’t performing well, there are reasons why—and resources are one,” says Rogers. “We have schools in Alabama that spend as much as $5,000 per child and as little as $300 per child. We don’t have a level playing field.”

Since becoming National Teacher of the Year, Rogers has been delivering her message about the need for equity in education to national organizations; community, civic and teacher groups; and policymakers at all levels of government. Even the pomp and circumstance of the April White House ceremony where she received the honor, did not draw this Alabama elementary teacher off her point:

“We all want to live in a country where all our children are valued so much that there would never be an issue of equity in education. And we all want to live in a country where our citizens would be outraged if any child attended a school where the classroom environment was not safe, secure and nurturing. All of us want to live in a country where our legacy to the world is how we’ve taken care of our children.”

Her message is blunt. But with an infectious smile and Southern charm, Rogers subtly underscores the discrepancies between our nation’s stated value in education and education policies that hurt children who are the victims of their parents’ circumstance. She challenges her audiences to think.

WORKING WITH AT-RISK KIDS

A glimpse at Rogers’ almost 20-year teaching career at Leeds Elementary School, a Title I school in Leeds, Ala., just outside Birmingham, partially explains her passion about education equity. “Betsy has spent her career working with at-risk kids and kids who other teachers sometimes shy away from because they have so many problems,” says Vi Parramore, president of Rogers’ local, the Jefferson County American Federation of Teachers. “She has been living the inequity.”

But a look at how Rogers became Alabama Teacher of the Year and then 2003 National Teacher of the Year reveals her devotion both to children and to the teaching profession. Within the last five years, Rogers has received her master’s degree, an educational specialist degree, a doctorate—and certification from the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. “I waited 24 years before I returned to higher education,” she says, “but my point is, it is never too late.”

After her National Teacher of the Year tour is over, Rogers will return to the classroom, preferably at a school that is on academic alert and populated by at-risk students. In the meantime, she doggedly uses the national status the honor affords her to advocate for children and teachers—and to promote a level playing field.

“One day last year, I had been working all morning in a kindergarten class in the neediest school in our district,” Rogers says. “That afternoon, I went to my friend’s kindergarten class in one of the most affluent schools in our state.

“The affluent school had a veteran principal, a veteran teacher and unlimited resources. The high poverty school had a first-year principal, first-year teacher and little resources,” she points out. “I thought about how these two groups of children would have to compete for the same colleges and jobs. I thought about the huge gap in the equality of their education.”
 

ADEQUATE RESOURCES AND HIGHLY TRAINED TEACHERS

The majority of high-poverty and low-performing schools Rogers has visited have first-year principals and new teachers, she says, noting that “we have to have our strongest teachers in our weakest schools.”

Parramore says that Rogers’ equity message is particularly timely because of the testing requirements under the No Child Left Behind Act. “We know low test scores can be good test scores with adequate resources and highly trained teachers like Betsy teaching those kids,” Parramore says.

The Jefferson County American Federation of Teachers is celebrating Rogers as America’s number one teacher with a billboard campaign in Jefferson County and Montgomery, the state capital. After all, she is Alabama’s first National Teacher of the Year. She also is a longtime AFT activist.

“When Betsy got the award, she called me and said: ‘Vi, the AFT has been my organization, and I want to use this award to help my union,’” Parramore recalls.

The fact is, Rogers has been helping her union by staying focused on the AFT’s mission: teaching our children.

The National Teacher of the Year program is sponsored by the Council of Chief State School Officers and Scholastic Inc.

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