Can great teaching be measured?

If you are an educator or parent and haven't been following educationnation.com, I will forgive you temporarily, provided you get your butt over there STAT before NBC pulls the 150 some odd videos. Isn't it awesome that we can watch at home (hopefully on a treadmill) the great minds of education at one spot for FREE!

I was listening to a podcast this morning where the person discussed "cognitive refocusing". That sounds really academic, it basically means that instead of wasting time watching television, people are now wasting time online! The good news -- there is actually useful, thought-provoking information online that you can use in your line of work and life! 

Along those lines, I had a conversation with an educator last week that caused a great deal of reflection. The teacher stated that she now spends so much time testing that she has no time left for teaching. Since this teacher had not done any universal screening or progress monitoring, I was a bit confused. Her grade level didn't take the state exams. The only state-mandated test for this teacher was a 1 minute reading probe administered by someone else. 

Along those lines, can great teaching be measured? If Bill Gates is willing to spend a half billion dollars finding out, maybe we should care enough to ask ourselves, what makes a great teacher? 

Click here to see some possibilities in this video.