President Obama hit all the right notes yesterday afternoon at TechBoston Academy in Dorchester. This wasn’t a visit to break new ground with big policy announcements; it was a chance to hammer home themes that have been part of the consistent reform message delivered by the president and his education secretary, Arne Duncan.
That means a big focus of Obama’s remarks – and those of philanthropist Melinda Gates who spoke before him – was on effective teaching. It is “the single most important factor in a student’s success after their parent,” Obama said. “We’ve got to lift up teachers. We’ve got to reward good teaching. We also have to stop making excuses for bad teachers.”
The focus on teaching frames a good deal of the education reform effort in the country, and defines the battle lines that have formed around it as well. 
TechBoston Academy, opened in 2002, was one of the city’s first pilot schools. These schools, which are part of the district system, are granted more flexibility in structuring their school day and curriculum – and school leaders have the freedom to make what they think are the best teaching hires, unimpeded by contract rules governing seniority and other factors. Teachers have a much bigger role in running the school, but are more accountable for its success.
It is a formula that borrows from the model for charter schools, the best of which use their autonomy over staffing, scheduling, and curriculum to create powerful learning communities. Both Obama and Gates cited charter schools and pilot schools as models for school improvement.
TechBoston serves an overwhelmingly low income, minority student body. Its 82 percent graduation rate is roughly 20 points higher than the district average. And 94 percent of its recent graduates went on to college, with 85 percent of these students the first person in their family to do so. “What’s happening here is working,” said Obama. “We know what works. What’s required, then, to get results from any school is no longer a mystery. And that means there can’t be any more excuses – from anybody.”
A big part of the policy drive to end any excuse-making is now centered on teacher evaluations. From the federal Race to the Top competition, from which Massachusetts won $250 million, to the state’s own reform law passed last year, districts are being pressed to revamp teacher evaluations so that clear measures of student learning are part of a more rigorous assessment of teacher effectiveness. It’s complicated stuff, and there are plenty of questions about how best to implement such a reform. This New York Times article serves as a cautionary tale. But the answer isn’t to stand still and cling to the status quo.
The president’s speech was the thrill of a lifetime for TechBoston students. Several of those lucky enough to get a presidential handshake vowed after the event not to wash that hand again – at least for while, if not ever. 
As for the adults, the speech was no doubt heartening to reform advocates in the crowd such as Paul Grogan of the Boston Foundation and Citizen Schools founder Eric Schwarz. Likely to have been less enthralled was Richard Stutman, president of the Boston Teachers Union, which has thrown roadblocks up to the growth of pilot schools in Boston.
A powerful way to keep reform efforts moving is rallying public support for change by spotlighting schools like TechBoston, which are showing that, with the right structural change in schools, students from all backgrounds can succeed.
It can never hurt to have the guy with the world’s biggest bully pulpit drop by to deliver that message.
