​What We Believe

Teaching is a true profession.

We have enormous respect for teachers as expert professionals. We honor their skills, creativity, and drive to do what they do every day.

Great teachers are always learning.

The best teachers strive to improve continually in three areas: their depth of content knowledge; their expertise in the craft of teaching; and their ability to know and teach to the strengths of every students in their classrooms.

Excellence comes out of deep collaboration and ongoing growth.

Great teachers need time, space, and opportunity to work with fellow experts to keep growing throughout their careers. When they come together as a community to exchange ideas and challenge each other, they not only become better—they define excellence itself.

Teacher accountability should be complex.

 Great teaching is a complex craft, and we should evaluate it—and teachers—in sophisticated and meaningful ways that advance the profession.

Honoring greatness elevates the profession.

When we celebrate, promote, and advocate for the best teachers today, we raise the prestige of the whole profession and attract the best possible candidates to a career in the classroom.