Leadership Insider, Nov. 2003: Additional Resources

November Insider

Here is an expanded list of resources on the issues discussed in the November 2003 issue of Leadership Insider, including links to those resources listed in the printed newsletter:

NCLB and Highly Qualified Teachers
Teacher Quality generally
Teacher preparation
Recruitment
Retention
Compensation
Value-Added Analysis
Professional Development

NCLB and Highly Qualified Teachers

Improving Teacher Quality: Non-Regulatory Draft Guidance—Revised. U.S. Dept. of Ed., September 2003: Review of requirements on preparation, training, and recruitment of high quality teachers and principals.

Title I Paraprofessional Non-Regulatory Guidance. U.S. Department of Education, November 2002: Review of NCLB provisions regarding Title I paraprofessionals.

Meeting the Highly Qualified Teachers Challenge: The Secretary's Second Annual Report on Teacher Quality. U.S. Department of Education, Office of Policy Planning and Innovation June 2003: Report criticized in the Education Trust article for presenting inaccurate and badly interpreted data on teacher placements.

Meeting the Highly Qualified Teachers Challenge: The Secretary's Second Annual Report on Teacher Quality. U.S. Department of Education, Office of Policy Planning and Innovation June 2002: Previous year's report from the department.

No Child Left Behind Act: More Information Would Help States Determine Which Teachers Are Highly Qualified. U.S. General Accounting Office, July 2003: Report cited in the Education Trust article that finds that most states still have not put into place data systems to find out how many highly qualified teachers they have and where such teachers are teaching. Criticizes Department of Education for failing to implement and make available to states timely information on new NCLB teacher-quality provisions.

"ED: Tech is key to rural school success." Corey Murray in eSchool News, November 8, 2003: Article reporting how the U.S. Department of Education is promoting technological solutions for rural schools to comply with NCLB. Lists links to additional resources on rural schools and electronic innovation.

In Need of Improvement: Ten Ways the U.S. Department of Education Has Failed to Live Up to Its Teacher Quality Requirements. Education Trust, August 2003: Unabridged text of the report excerpted in Leadership Insider.

"U.S. Education Secretary Paige Highlights Department's Highly Qualified Teacher Initiatives." U.S. Department of Education, September 3, 2003: Press release responding to the Education Trust report criticizing the department's track record on highly qualified teachers. Education Secretary Rod Paige indicates that the department will review the report but identifies and defends the department's actions in support of the "highly qualified" requirement.

Meeting NCLB Goals for Highly Qualified Teachers: Estimates by State from Survey Data. Council of Chief State School Officers, October 2003: State-by-state review of data from 1993-94 and 1999-2000 school years finding that the percentage of teachers with both certification and a college major in their fields declined in the majority of states; that the problem is significantly greater in math and science; and concluding that states will need to take significant policy action to help local districts comply with NCLB.

"States Claim Teachers Are 'Qualified.'" Bess Keller in Education Week, October 29, 2003: News story reporting that many states indicate in this year's consolidated applications for federal aid that most teachers of core academic subjects are "highly qualified." Still, rates vary among states, many states are still working through the definitions and tools for measuring compliance, and some observers question the data reported, particularly claims that high-poverty schools are in compliance at roughly the same rates as more affluent schools.

Teacher Quality generally

Defining "Highly Qualified Teachers": What Does "Scientifically-Based Research" Actually Tell Us? Linda Darling-Hammond and Peter Youngs, December 2002: Paper disputing the assertions on teacher quality, certification, and preparation put forth in the U.S. Department of Education's 2002 report, Meeting the Highly Qualified Teachers Challenge: The Secretary's Second Annual Report on Teacher Quality.

Teacher Quality: Understanding the Effectiveness of Teacher Attributes. Economic Policy Institute, August 2003: Review and analysis of empirical studies on the impact of teacher characteristics on teacher effectiveness. Emphasizes need to base teacher training practices and policies on solid evidence of what really works in the classroom, rather than simplistic measures and assumptions found in state and federal policies, including NCLB.

In Pursuit of Quality Teaching: Five Key Strategies for Policymakers. Education Commission of the States, 2000: Recommendations to state and local policymakers on teacher preparation, recruitment, training, and accountability.

Good Teaching Matters. The Education Trust, Summer 1998: Report showing correlation between underachievement at high-poverty, high-minority schools and inadequate teaching. Also provides information on value-added evaluation of effective teaching.

Honor in the Boxcar: Equalizing Teacher Quality. The Education Trust, Spring 2000: Collection of statements by a cross-section of education and other community organizations addressing the fact that the needy students often receive less effective instruction.

All Talk, No Action: Putting an End to Out-of-Field Teaching, The Education Trust, August 2002: State-by-state comparison of the prevalence of out-of-field teaching. Provides recommendations for state and local decision makers on how to address the problem and argues that higher standards will increase the teacher supply, rather than exacerbate shortages, because selectivity attracts talent.

Teacher preparation

NSBA: Advocacy section of NSBA's Web site includes a page with information on the Higher Education Act and the Teacher Recruitment and Retention Act and NSBA's Advocacy staff's efforts to increase the accountability of university teacher preparation programs and incentives to attract students to teaching careers.

Eight Questions on Teacher Preparation: What Does the Research Say? Education Commission of the States, Spring 2003: Report cited by Rotherham and Mead concluding that little empirical evidence supports current state certification and licensure requirements. Reviews the current state of research on the strength of the correlation between teacher effectiveness and various components of teacher preparation, such as subject matter knowledge, pedagogical coursework, field experience, and alternate certification.

American Board for Certification of Teacher Excellence: Non-profit funded and actively promoted by U.S. Department of Education for its Passport to Education, which offers districts and teachers a cheaper, faster route to NCLB highly qualified status. To be certified, teacher candidates need only pass two online tests and pay $500. So far only Pennsylvania has recognized American Board certification, but 12 more states may do so this year. This is the kind of program the Education Trust and others criticize for certifying teachers who lack any exposure to the classroom. Not surprisingly, colleges of education also tend to take a dim view of this approach.

Higher Education: Activities Underway to Improve Teacher Training, but Reporting on the Activities Could Be Enhanced. U.S. General Accounting Office—Report No. GAO-03-6, December 2002: Report mentioned in the Education Trust article finding that the U.S. Department of Education has insufficient information about whether HEA grant money for teacher training is being well spent.
Available at http://www.gao.gov

Not Good Enough: A Content Analysis of Teacher Licensing Examinations. The Education Trust, Spring 1999: Scathing report revealing the minimal educational standards required to pass most state teacher licensing examinations. Rejects arguments that adopting more rigorous standards would undermine efforts to ensure diversity among teacher corps and argues that current weak standards primarily harm minority students.

Recruitment

National Teacher Recruitment Clearinghouse (Recruiting New Teachers, Inc.): Collection maintained by a non-profit dedicated to assisting school districts and teachers with recruitment challenges. Includes resources available free online or for purchase.

Missed Opportunities: How We Keep High-Quality Teachers Out of Urban Classrooms. New Teacher Project, September 2003: Report describing how slow and cumbersome hiring practices are driving away qualified teaching applicants who start out interested in serving in high-need districts. Includes specific policy and administrative recommendations that may prove helpful for school boards and district leadership.

"Finding the Right Fit." Marco A. Munoz, Paul A. Winter, and Robert N. Ronau, in American School Board Journal, Oct. 2003: Account of how Jefferson County, Kentucky school district based its recruitment efforts on what it learned from teachers about what were attractive considerations in weighing job opportunities.

Teach for America: The competitive national non-profit program mentioned by Rotherham and Mead that places recent college graduates as teachers in challenging schools.

"Visa Cap Jeopardizes Foreign-Teacher Hiring." Julie Blair, in Education Week, October 22, 2003: News story describing how a Congressional decision to allow a provision increasing the number of work visas granted college educated foreign workers to lapse will adversely impact urban and rural school districts that have filled teaching vacancies with highly qualified foreign teachers, especially those who have excellent math and science credentials.

"City Schools Report Progress On Hiring Certified Teachers." Catherine Gewertz, in Education Week, October 29, 2003: News report that new hiring tactics and a weak economy have enabled urban school districts to make significant report progress on hiring certified teachers, but that challenge of meeting NCLB requirements still will be daunting.

Retention

No Dream Denied: A Pledge to America's Children. National Commission on Teaching and America's Future, January 2003: Report providing an in-depth look at conditions that contribute to chronic teacher shortages across school districts and states. The report proposes three strategies for a national effort to improve teacher retention by fifty percent by 2006.

Attrition of New Teachers Among Recent College Graduates: Comparing Occupational Stability Among 1992-93 Graduates Who Taught and Those Who Worked in Other Occupations. U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, 2001: Report mentioned in the Education Trust article finding that K-12 teachers are among the most occupationally stable of newly employed college graduates.

"The great escape." Seth Stern, in Christian Science Monitor, October 7, 2003: Describes the exodus of new teachers from the profession, citing data that seem to counter the study Education Trust cites for the proposition that retention isn't such a challenge. Reports that job frustrations for new teachers include the lack of decision-making power and the typical "sink-or-swim" induction model. Profiles mentoring programs in Rochester, N.Y. and Columbus, Ohio that freed mentor teachers of some or all of their workload and resulted in cost savings from improved retention rates.

Developing Careers, Building a Profession: The Rochester Career in Teaching Plan. National Commission on Teaching & America's Future, February 2002: The Career in Teaching program in Rochester, NY, was crafted by teachers and administrators working hand-in-hand to create a career path-way for teachers founded on knowledge and accomplishment. This initiative incorporates support for new teachers, provides opportunities for highly accomplished teachers to share their skills, and offers peer review and assistance to teachers experiencing problems in their practice.

New Teacher Excellence: Retaining Our Best. Alliance for Excellent Education, December 2002: Report advocating not only financial incentives for teachers to serve high-poverty schools, but also effective state and local induction programs, such as mentoring, to help new teachers succeed. Identifies key obstacles to effectiveness and provides examples of promising existing programs.

"Induction Programs Help Keep Better Teachers." Ellen R. Desilio, at Education World: Online "e-interview" with school administrator and author Annette L. Breaux on effective new teacher induction programs, of which she argues orientation and mentoring are mere components.

Wanted: A National Teacher Supply Policy for Education: The Right Way to Meet the "Highly Qualified Teacher" Challenge. Linda Darling-Hammond and Gary Sykes in Education Policy Analysis Archives, September 17, 2003: Report reviewing nature of teacher supply problems. Argues that retention is a larger problem than new teacher training; criticizes usual approach to meeting shortage by lowering teacher standards; reviews factors identified by teachers for leaving teaching; reviews successful district approaches but argues that maldistribution of teachers for most challenging students necessitates national strategies.

NSBA: Advocacy section of NSBA's Website on the reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), detailing NSBA's positions on how to change the act to address the dysfunctional aspects of the current law that tend to demoralize and drive special education teachers from the field. Compares NSBA's positions, adopted with input from NSBA's Council of School Attorneys, with the provisions of the House and Senate reauthorization bills, H.R. 1350 and S. 1248.

"Research Summary: Teacher Retention Ideas." NSBA Library and Information Services: Research summaries of additional resources on teacher retention.

Compensation

Reinventing Teacher Compensation Systems. Carolyn Kelley and Allen Odden, September 1995: Well-known research essay that reviews history of teacher compensation and discusses innovative systems. Report's publisher, the Consortium for Policy Research in Education (CPRE), operates federally funded research centers and a Teacher Compensation Project, with online resources.

"AFT On The Issues: Merit Pay." American Federation of Teachers, April 2001: Good brief position statement contrasting merit pay, which AFT opposes, with pay for performance, which it may support. Forthrightly acknowledges shortcomings of traditional compensation in new era of accountability.

Stand By Me: What Teachers Really Think About Unions, Merit Pay, and Other Professional Matters. Public Agenda 2003: National opinion survey of teacher attitudes; finding that teachers are receptive to extra pay for those who work harder or serve in more challenging schools but are skeptical of paying more based on test scores or subject matter. However, younger teachers are more supportive of merit pay.

"The Folly of Merit Pay." Alfie Kohn, in Education Week, Sept. 17, 2003: Commentary arguing forcefully that pay is not the issue for teacher effectiveness: professionalism is. Cites previous studies showing that merit pay attempts were unsuccessful and argues that they actually undermine professionalism.

Higher Pay in Hard-to-Staff Schools: the Case for Financial Incentives. American Association of School Administrators, June 2002: Report that reviews federal, state, and district incentives for recruiting qualified teachers; recommends a new, federal tax credit for teachers and principals who work in high-poverty schools.

Better Pay for Better Teaching: Making Teacher Compensation Pay Off in the Age of Accountability. Progressive Policy Institute, May 2002: Paper examining how teachers are currently paid and proposing they be rewarded not just for experience, but also for the skills, knowledge, and, ultimately, the performance they bring into their classrooms.

Pathway to Results: Pay for Performance in Denver. Community Training and Assistance Center, December 2001: Mid-term evaluation of performance pay pilot in Denver Public Schools, including student achievement, other program objectives, and teacher, administrator, and parent perceptions. Recommends improvements.

"Pay for Performance: What Are the Issues?" Ellen R. Desilio, at Education World: Online overview of pay for performance issues, with links to additional resources.

"Leveraging Teacher Pay." Allen Odden and Marc J. Wallace Jr., in Education Week, August 6, 2003: Short opinion piece advocating pay for performance and identifying components necessary for system to avoid pitfalls that will undermine its acceptance and effectiveness.

"Iowa's Move Toward Pay-for-Performance On Verge of Collapse." Karla Scoon Reid, in Education Week, September 10, 2003: News report describing how state decision makers are wrestling with sustaining the statewide program at funding levels required for it to be effective.

"Teaching and Learning: Big-City Districts Scrap Reward-Based Systems of Evaluating Teachers." Julie Blair, Bess Keller, and Kathleen Kennedy Manzo, in Education Week, October 22, 2003: Article reporting that Philadelphia and Baltimore have both discontinued pay-for-performance programs seen as too costly and administratively burdensome for teachers.

Value-Added Analysis

"The Value of Value-Added Analysis." Darrel Drury & Harold Doran, New American Schools, in NSBA Policy Research Brief, Vol. 3, No. 1, January 2003: Paper advocating value-added to drive continuous improvement in instruction, teacher evaluation, and professional development. Defends against criticisms and links to NCLB.

Operation Public Education: A New System of Accountability. University of Pennsylvania, September 2002: Report proposing various innovations for Pennsylvania's public schools, including value-added measurement of educational effectiveness.

Informed Decision Making: An Introduction to Student Achievement and Teacher Data Comparisons. Community Training and Assistance Center, May 2002: Introduction to linking classroom student achievement data to teacher pay.

"A New Look at Accountability: Value-Added Assessment." Alison B. Bianchi, in Forecast: Emerging issues in public education, June 2003: Report in New York State School Boards Association publication on Tennessee's value-added assessment system on move by other states to follow suit. Includes list of additional resources.

Professional Development

Standards for Staff Development - Revised. National Staff Development Council, 2001: Standards report mentioned in Stephanie Hirsh's article, a consensus statement by coalition of national education associations, including NSBA.

National Board for Professional Teaching Standards: Many states and school systems offer bonuses to teachers who complete the rigorous National Board certification.