A GROUP of second-graders gaze at their teacher, Mauricia Dantes. Morton School of Excellence, on Chicago's West Side, used to be one of the city's worst schools. With new staff, that is changing. Ms Dantes is the kind of teacher students want to impress. Ms Dantes asks a question and hands shoot up. She calls on a lucky boy. Another squirms; Ms Dantes silences him with a quick look. The boy talks about Helen Keller's determination, then gets shy. Ms Dantes coaxes him on. "I feel like I'm in college", a girl says proudly. One day she may be.

A teacher can have an enormous effect on a child in his classroom. No school factor—budget, class size, curriculum—is more important. But America does a horrendous job recruiting teachers.

High-performing countries select teachers carefully. In Singapore, for example, the teacher-training programme accepts about one in eight applicants. In America teacher-training programmes have a financial incentive to admit almost anyone who applies. In the old days finding good teachers was much easier. Talented women taught because they couldn't find work elsewhere. Now just 23% of new teachers rank in the top third of their academic class, according to a report from McKinsey. The share is even smaller in poor schools.

The question is, how do we get better teachers in America's classrooms? Raising teacher salaries would help, but budgets are tight. One option, posited by McKinsey, would be to start by raising salaries in poor districts. Schools might also pay more money to fewer teachers—a big class with a good teacher may be better than a small class with a bad one.

The teaching profession also needs a better image. This seems like a fluffy proposition, but it's an important one. Talented workers are attracted to prestigious fields. Teach for America has helped to give teaching a caché (12% of Ivy League seniors applied last year) but only as a temporary job. More promising are programmes that recruit an elite group for a career in teaching. In Chicago the Academy for Urban School Leadership (AUSL) recruits smart candidates such as Ms Dantes (formerly a consultant for IBM). AUSL trains them in a residency programme, then places them in a public school managed by AUSL. Graduates must teach in a Chicago school for at least four years, a requirement that weeds out those who want only a short stint of teaching.

But perhaps the biggest problem is that schools do not value good teachers over bad ones. A talented professional wants to feel recognised for his work. The current education system does not identify good teachers, let alone reward them. Distinguishing between good teachers and bad ones, however, is reform's most controversial question. I'll tackle it in another post tomorrow.

(Photo credit: AFP)