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What can my state do?
The quality of teaching is critical to how well
students achieve academically. Therefore, states that wish to narrow
the achievement gap should develop a comprehensive education reform
strategy that focuses heavily on teacher quality.
The federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB)
made the achievement gap and teacher quality, top priorities by
requiring achievement gains over time by all student subgroups as
well as requiring a qualified teacher in every classroom by the
2005-06 school year. NCLB also provides some new funding for teacher
quality improvements.
To reduce the achievement gap, state policymakers
must closely consider the relationship between proposed reforms and
student achievement. States and localities that have seen the most
progress have implemented multi-pronged strategies to improve
teacher quality – not just stand-alone policies.
Below we discuss some actions that governors and
state policymakers can take to sustain and enhance teacher quality
and improve student achievement.
Redesign policies for low-performing schools
States can craft policies and incentives for teacher
assignment, hiring, and recruitment to encourage qualified
teachers to work in low-performing schools. These policies can
target the placement of both beginning and veteran educators.
An alternate approach might focus on encouraging or
restricting individual school districts from assigning their least
effective or emergency-credentialed teachers to low-performing
schools.
Offer monetary incentives
Policymakers can use salary enhancements and bonuses
to change the behavior of individual teachers. Such approaches could
include:
- Covering the cost for out-of-field teachers to receive
additional education and training in shortage-subject areas.
- Providing salary incentives for highly qualified teachers who
agree to work in or transfer to low-performing schools.
- Offering loan forgiveness to teacher candidates who agree to
teach in low-performing schools or major in a critical-need
subject, like mathematics or science. For instance, teacher loan
programs in Iowa and South Carolina have achieved
some of these goals.
Also, California offers bonuses to National
Board-certified teachers willing to teach in low-performing schools.
Through the Governor's Teaching Fellowship Program, California also
provides $20,000 grants to cover the education and living expenses
of teacher candidates enrolled full-time in post-baccalaureate
credentialing programs and who commit to teach at a low-performing
school for four years.
Revisit collective bargaining
Collective bargaining agreements restrict most
states and districts from changing the assignments of veteran
teachers. States must establish new understandings with teachers and
teacher unions and discuss how to revisit traditional
professional norms in light of teachers’ critical role in
impacting school improvement.
For instance, Maryland’s Visionary Panel
for Better Schools has recommended that collective bargaining
agreements and local school district policies be changed to support
assignment of the most qualified teachers to low-performing schools.
And in 2000, the New York State Board of Regents prohibited the
hiring of uncertified teachers in low-performing schools immediately
and in all public schools by 2003.
States can also try shorter-term approaches to
prevent beginning teachers and less effective teachers from
concentrating in low-performing schools – such as tying district
funding to teacher assignment policies and behavior.
School districts might attract more qualified
teachers to low-performing schools in troubled neighborhoods by
eliminating residency rules as a condition of employment.
“Grow your own” programs
Recruiting and training teachers from local middle
and high schools has been an effective recruitment tool,
particularly in low-income neighborhoods.
The South Carolina Center for Teacher
Recruitment manages two promising programs:
- ProTeam focuses on strategies to get junior high school
students interested in teaching by providing opportunities for
them to tutor and teach younger students.
- The Teacher Cadet Program identifies academically
successful high school students and provides them with actual
classroom teaching and tutoring experience.
Require more from teachers
States must ensure that teacher certification
conveys some measure of quality. They need to define quality
teaching and identify performance standards that teachers
must demonstrate to obtain a license. Making teacher preparation,
licensure, and professional development more rigorous can yield
significant results.
These standards should focus on qualities (such as
content knowledge and pedagogical ability) that are most strongly
related to classroom effectiveness.
Right now, states are working to comply with NCLB's
requirement to have a highly qualified teacher in every classroom by
the 2005-06 school year. Two ways to way to meet this goal are to:
- Strengthen licensure requirements, such as cut scores
on subject knowledge exams.
- Hold teacher preparation programs accountable for the
quality of their graduates, through the use of report cards
mandated by the 1998 amendments to Title II of the Higher
Education Act. Louisiana’s teacher preparation report
cards provide one model for holding such programs accountable.
Provide alternate pathways to teaching
Increasingly, states are looking to sources other
than undergraduate teacher preparation programs for candidates to
fill teaching vacancies – particularly in content areas such as
math and science.
Many states have created alternative pathway
programs to help make teachers out of nontraditional teaching
candidates (such as career changers and teacher aides), who
haven’t attended a standard teacher preparation program. In
addition, many urban and rural districts have recruited
undergraduates through national programs such as Teach for
America.
It is critical that graduates of all such programs:
- Are held to high standards
- Demonstrate acquisition of critical knowledge and skills
- Receive on-the-job support
Foster university/district partnerships
Forming partnerships between university-based
teacher preparation programs, schools of arts and sciences and
low-performing school districts is another promising approach.
The goals of such partnerships include:
- Providing high-need districts with a stream of highly
qualified teachers.
- Producing fundamental changes in teacher preparation programs
by forging a relationship with a “real world” district.
Enhance professional development
Effective professional development is
curriculum-based, job-embedded, sustained over time and provides
teachers with the tools to improve instructional practice.
To make professional development more meaningful,
states should consider strengthening such opportunities. Some
strategies are to:
- Spend federal professional development funds more efficiently.
- Align teacher professional development more closely with state
academic standards and professional teaching standards.
California recently established Professional Development
Institutes to train every reading and math teacher in newly adopted
state academic standards. The Institutes provide 120 hours of
initial training with follow-up sessions during the school year.
Focus on teacher retention
After five years, 39% of all new teachers leave
their jobs. In urban schools, the turnover rate rises to 50%. Two
factors explain half of all teacher turnover:
- Job dissatisfaction
- Interest in pursuing another job
According to Richard Ingersoll of the University of
Pennsylvania, the chief causes of teacher job dissatisfaction are:
- Poor salary
- Poor administrative support
- Student discipline problems
However, roughly half of all teachers who leave to
pursue another job simply move to a different school. Schools
with minority enrollments of 50% or more are particularly affected
by this migration.
State and local policymakers can do a number of
things to improve teacher retention, particularly at
low-performing schools.
Enhance teacher induction/mentoring
Not only do effective induction programs improve
teacher retention, but they also improve instructional practice.
Effective induction programs include:
- Universal participation
- Extension beyond the first year of teaching
- Train experienced teachers to become mentors
At least 30 states have implemented teacher
induction programs – but few have fully funded them, and most have
ceded decisions about program structure to local districts. If
resources are scarce, states might consider targeting funds at
low-performing and hard-to-staff schools.
Connecticut's Beginning Educator
Support and Training Program (which includes first-year mentoring
and requires second-year completion of a teaching portfolio) is a
nationally recognized teacher induction program.
Train school leaders
In addition to improving teacher quality, states
should consider enacting policies that provide training for principals
and administrators, so that they can become more effective
instructional leaders. Likewise, states should consider policies that provide greater leadership
opportunities to teachers.
Working with schools in Arkansas, Arizona
and South Carolina, the Milken Family Foundation’s Teacher
Advancement Program is one program that provides multiple career
paths for teachers – such as "career,"
"mentor," and "master" teacher. As teachers move
up the career ladder, their roles and responsibilities change and
their compensation increases.
Other ways states can enhance school leadership
include:
- Fund professional development for school leaders.
- Establish policies for the accreditation of school leadership
programs.
- Provide support for school leaders who effectively contribute
to a professional culture of improved teaching and student
learning.
Overhaul traditional teacher compensation
Across-the-board salary increases may not be the
most efficient investment to boost student achievement and reduce
the achievement gap – even though higher starting salaries and
targeted salary increases often are needed to attract and retain
qualified teachers in hard-to-staff and low-performing schools.
The current teacher compensation system rewards
years of teaching experience and earning an advanced degree.
However, neither of those characteristics necessarily leads to
effective teaching practice. States and districts have several alternate
teacher compensation options to choose from, including:
- Differentiated compensation: Reward teachers who agree
to work in a more challenging school, or who demonstrate
acquisition of advanced content knowledge or teaching skills.
For instance, to recruit and retain teachers in high-need
subjects or in hard-to-staff schools, states or districts may
pay a higher salary. Kentucky is the first state to
authorize pilot school districts to adopt differentiated pay for
teachers in shortage subject areas.
- Performance pay: Base at least some portion of teacher
compensation on student outcomes – either at the classroom,
school, or district level. For instance, states and localities
can create performance incentives to teachers for whole-school
improvement or closing the achievement gap. Or, they might also
choose to reward individual teacher performance based on student
achievement gains. In 2001, Iowa piloted team-based,
variable pay in 10 school districts and 18 schools. Preliminary results indicate that pilot sites displayed increased focus on
instruction, greater teamwork, and student achievement gains.
(Top of this page)
Closing the Achievement Gap
NGA Center for Best Practices
Hall of States, 444 N. Capitol St., Washington, D.C. 20001-1512
Telephone: (202) 624-5300 | webmaster: webmaster@nga.org
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