Simply the Best

Simply the Best acknowledges the importance of listening to students to inform our efforts in schools. Schools and teachers can find extensive support for an intentional focus on developing relationships in schools and how these relationships result in improved academic performance, in reducing achievement gaps, and in promoting safe schools and productive learning environments for students. Students should be more than passive participants in the educational process. They can articulate teacher behaviors that make a difference for them. Simply the Best utilizes not only a research voice to identify practices schools should consider around relationships, but also enlists the student voice. Focus groups of students from elementary, middle and high were interviewed and an array of research using student surveys and perspectives consulted resulting in the identification of twenty-nine (29) practices that characterize the best teachers. Simply the Best outlines a research and a student perspective considering relationships around the following dimensions:

Relationships Around a Moral Imperative
Relationships Around Curriculum
Relationships Around Instruction
Relationships Around Assessment
Relationships Around Recovery.


Readers are encouraged to reflect on their experiences as a student, as well as the professional practices in their classrooms or schools. Eighty (80) ideas geared toward relationship building and the development of a customer service mind-set are shared as suggestions for teachers. Simply the Best serves as a reminder of the power of the teacher - the power of our words and actions in shaping students' educational experience. The teacher and student relationship is the foundation for school improvement efforts. How would students describe those relationships in your school? How many of the 29 things students say make the best teachers could be commonly observed in classrooms at your school? Read to see what truly makes a difference for students!