How Do Educators Measure Success?

The contents of your wallet--is that how you measure success?

The biggest house on the block--is that how you measure success?

As an educator, how do you measure success? Your A-F grade?

I recently heard the notable Oklahoman and Express Personnel founder, Bob Funk, say a person is only as successful as the last person he or she helped, and I believe that is a good measure of success.

Unfortunately, those individual educational success stories hardly ever make the news. I am really tired of reading and hearing about abusive educators, embezzling educators and unethical educators. Those stories many times squeeze out the positive educational success stories. I take pride in being an educator, but some days my professional pride is truly challenged.

At the end of the day, an educator’s success stories are measured in seemingly small victories: one of your students discovering the love of reading, one of your students having enough college credit (via concurrent, dual or Advanced Placement enrollment) to enter college as a sophomore or that most unlikely of all students receiving his or her diploma. Your success stories (quiet as they may be) are becoming the success stories for other Oklahoma educators, and they help encourage us all to fight the good fight.

Thank you for always inspiring and bringing pride to the profession!