This is an excerpt from National PTA Charles J. “Chuck” Saylors’ introduction of Memphis City and Shelby County teachers, and Dr. Irving Hamer of Memphis City Schools, during the 114th National PTA Convention and Exhibition on June 13, 2010.

As you know all too well, public education faces a crisis. It moved past challenging at least two years ago.

Indecision among our political leaders over school funding is straining existing resources. Achievement gaps are limiting the futures of many of our children— especially those who live in poverty. And for far too many of our children, the access to high-quality education doesn’t exist at all.

As I told the National School Boards Association back in April, we are riled up and ready to play our part in finding the solutions and demanding answers to the tough questions.

This is especially true of urban families and communities, who struggle most-acutely —and battle most-fiercely—to improve education and health for their families.

Family engagement in education is one part of solving the achievement gap. So are talented, caring, highly-effective teachers.

Kevin Carey, a leading education researcher, reviewed a series of research and it showed that great teachers have a greater impact on student achievement than a child’s socioeconomic background. Sitha Babu and Robert Mendro, two researchers in the Dallas Independent School District showed in a 2003 study that a poor-performing student can improve after they have been taught by three highly-effective teachers.

Think about it: Our teachers are just critical to the success of every child as our parents. As PTA members, we aren’t amazed. After all, America’s teachers are a critical part of our family-school partnerships.

Great teaching can not only improve student achievement, it can even change people’s lives. There is many a man or woman today who was on a path to dropping out, to academic failure and unhappiness until a teacher came into their lives and showed them a different path.

The late Jaime Escalante did that for teens growing up in Southern California’s East L.A. neighborhoods, working fiercely with students at Garfield High School on taking advanced math courses.

When Escalante—a National Teacher of the Year—died earlier this year, many of his former pupils—now lawyers, activists, and professionals—came to his memorial service to praise him for reshaping their lives for the better.

This is what teachers do every day, in every classroom across America. And when they work together with parents, there is little that will hold back a child from achieving his potential—and even going beyond it.

If our parents and teachers work together to improve education for all of our children, we can assure every child of a successful start to their adult lives. As you know, this can be the most-powerful partnership for improving education our country has ever known.

Now imagine that power being multiplied when we join in partnership with administrators, community members, researchers, foundation leaders, advocates and other caring adults. We could easily solve our nation’s dropout crisis.

The people of Memphis know these challenges all too well—and they know ability of community partnerships to begin overcoming them. Since Dr. Kriner Cash took over as superintendent of Memphis City Schools two years ago, he has worked with teachers, parents and others to improve student achievement and bring high-quality teaching to their classrooms. 

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has recognized the efforts of Dr. Cash, Memphis City educators, parents and the Memphis City Schools Board of Commissioners by providing the district with a $90 million grant  to ensure that every child has access to a high-quality teacher.This investment by the Gates Foundation—which is also supporting our mobilization of parents to enact the Common Core State Standards Initiative—along with the work of Memphis City Schools, its teachers and its parents, is what we need to see happen in every corner of our great nation.

The efforts we see in Memphis can happen in every part of this country if everyone comes together. National PTA and our 5 million members are ready to partner with every teacher, institution and caring adult ready to roll up their sleeves and improve education for all of our children.