Aspen Ideas Festival 2010

What makes a great teacher?

Amid all the debate over how to improve education in America, there's one point on which most everyone can agree: We need good teachers. But what makes a great teacher? A group of education experts gathered at the 2010 Aspen Ideas Festival to discuss that question.

Guests

• Linda Darling-Hammond: Professor of education at Stanford University and former president of the American Educational Research Association. Darling-Hammond led President Barack Obama's education-policy transition team.
• John Deasy: Deputy Director of Education at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Deasy will leave the foundation this fall to take a job as the deputy superintendent in the Los Angeles Unified School District, the second-largest school system in the country.
• Kati Haycock: President of The Education Trust and former executive vice president of the Children's Defense Fund.
• Peter Wescott: Middle school teacher in Aspen, Colorado.
• Howard Gardner: Professor of cognition and education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Gardner is also a psychology professor at Harvard.

More from MPR

• Half of Minn. schools miss NCLB progress marks
  August 10, 2010
• Obama signs emergency bill to halt teacher layoffs
  August 10, 2010
• St. Cloud school board elections feature Somali candidates
  August 9, 2010
• Kindergarten could be a kingmaker
  August 9, 2010

Resources

• Aspen Ideas Festival