What Matters Most in a Teacher

From Valerie Strauss:

What attribute do Americans find most compelling in the teacher they have identified as having the greatest impact on their lives?

I learned the answer recently when I was listening to a speech by Brandon H. Busteed, the executive director of Gallup Education, about public education and what polls show about how Americans view their teachers….

The 2012 Gallup study, titled “Public education in the United States: A nation divided,” said this:

Over 40% of Americans describe the teacher who had the most positive influence in their lives with words such as caring, compassionate, motivating, and inspiring; while just 17% of Americans thought intelligent, knowledgeable, persistent, hard-working, and demanding were words that describe the teacher who had the strongest influence on them.

I’d like to see how teacher evaluations linked to student standardized-test scores measure for “caring.”