Raising the Bar for Teaching and Learning Discussion Slides

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Raising the Bar for Teaching and
LearningDiscussion Slides
The Philanthropy Roundtable Jackson Hole
Institute June 2005
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Students in high-poverty areas are the least
likely to get high-quality teachers.

• Study after study has shown the single most
  important factor in student success is the
  quality of the teacher.
• Students taught by less effective teachers show
  differences in achievement of up to 50 percentile
  points from students taught by better teachers in
  as little as three years.
• In particular, a teachers mastery of his or her
  content area is one of the few clear predictors
  of teacher quality and, ultimately, student
  achievement.
• Students in high-poverty urban and rural
  districts are 77 percent more likely to be
  assigned a teacher who lacks the minimal academic
  requirements for the subject being taught.
• Nationwide, almost half (49 percent) of all math
  classes in high-poverty schools are taught by
  unqualified teachers.
• Between 1993 and 2000, the number of out-of-field
  teachers actually increased in high-poverty and
  high-minority schools.
• Sources Sanders and Rivers, 1996 Monk, 1994
  Jerald and Ingersoll, 2002.

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Our report showed that, with aggressive
recruitment, teachers apply to urban districts in
large numbers however, urban districts hire late
Eastern District Hiring Timeline
2002 Teacher Applicants vs. Vacancies
4500
4000
Aug. 12 First new teacher hired Aug. 20 New
Teacher Orientation
May Jun Jul Aug
Sep
End of May Over 600 prescreened candidates ready
for principal interview and placement
Sep. 9 School opens with vacancies after 177
teachers hired
Applicants
Vacancies (Hires)
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Fed up with waiting, applicants withdraw after
months in limbo
Withdrawal Rate of Pre-screened Candidates in
Eastern and Midwestern 1 Districts
Percent of Withdrawers for whom Late Timelines
Were a Factor in Their Decision to Leave
Withdrew by the end of Aug.
Hired or another status
Note The withdrawal data for the Eastern
District and Midwestern District 1 are the
attrition rates of the pre-screened applicants
those the districts had already interviewed,
decided were the best candidates, and chosen for
principal interviewing. We do not have the total
percentage of withdrawers for Midwestern District
2. Source Telephone, written, and e-mail
surveys, Applicant tracking databases (2002).
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Districts lose stronger and more sought-after
candidates
Quality Comparison of New Hires and Withdrawers
in the Eastern District
Percent of Withdrawers Who Had Applied to Teach
in a Critical Shortage Area
New hires
Withdrawers
Average undergraduate GPA
with degrees in their field
with significant education coursework
Note Southwestern District withdrawers were from
a program to hire high-needs teachers for
hard-to-staff schools. The differences in
education coursework and degrees in field are
statistically significant (plt.01).. Source
Applicant tracking databases (2002), TNTP file
analysis in Eastern District (May 2003).
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The candidates that the Districts lose are
serious candidates.
Nearly 50 percent of withdrawers said they would
have accepted a job offer from the urban district
if it had come earlier
80 percent (4 out of 5) said they still wanted to
be considered for a position in the urban district
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TNTP programs like the NYC Teaching Fellows are
contributing significantly to the supply of
teachers in critical shortage areas.

• Without NYCTF, the NYC schools would be far from
  able to meet state and federal requirements for
  certified teachers.
• Of all active Teaching Fellows, approximately
  3,000 (49 percent) teach a high-need subject
  area, including math, science, special education,
  ESL/bilingual education, and Spanish.
• About half of New York Citys new hires in math
  and special education are coming through NYCTF.
  All Teaching Fellows meet federal
  highly-qualified guidelines.
• About 18 of New York Citys active math teachers
  are Teaching Fellows. Many of these Fellows
  replaced uncertified teachers who had not passed
  state certification exams and had not
  participated in formal pre-service training.
• NYCTFs mid-year program has filled more than 200
  vacancies arising during the 2004-05 school year
  with certified, highly qualified Fellows in
  high-need subjects.

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Overview Effective School Staffing Initiative
TNTPs Effective School Staffing Initiative
(ESSI) seeks to address the teacher quality
problem and transform a districts
lowest-performing schools by taking a
comprehensive approach to school staffing that
gives additional hiring authority and autonomy to
principals.
Build an applicant pool of high-quality candidates
Eliminate or minimize policy barriers that impede
early, efficient hiring and placement
Train staff of a subset of schools to hire
teachers early and selectively
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The Practitioner Teacher Program models a new
approach to effective teacher preparation.

• The PTP allows individuals to become certified
  through a combination of coursework, full-time
  teaching and demonstrated content knowledge,
  instructional expertise, and classroom management
  skills.
• Key components include
• Pedagogy-focused content seminars
• Professional learning opportunities
• Classroom observation and feedback
• Performance assessment system (PAS)
• Statewide mentoring program
• TNTP developed and now oversees and coordinates
  the PTP for new teacher candidates in Louisiana
  from the Teach For America and Teach Baton Rouge
  programs.
• TNTPs new Texas Teaching Fellows program
  utilizes a similar model to prepare, certify and
  train new teachers for school districts in and
  around Austin and Dallas.

• Results to Date
• 335 Practitioner Teachers certified
• 3.46 is average undergraduate GPA
• 100 have passed PRAXIS
• 48 teaching shortage area subjects
• All PTP teachers are classified as highly
  qualified under No Child Left Behind federal and
  state legislation guidelines
• 95 of surveyed principals report that PTP
  teachers effected student academic gains of at
  least one grade level during SY2002-03.

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The PTP has received an extremely positive
response from participants.