NCLB and Teacher Quality: How Do We Meet Expectations

1
NCLB and Teacher Quality How Do We Meet
Expectations?

• Terry Dozier
• Director
• Teacher Quality Center
• Commonwealth Educational Policy Institute
• Virginia Commonwealth University

2
The Current Crisis

• QUANTITY 2.2 million teachers needed, over
  half of whom will be first-time teachers
• QUALITY Teachers need to know more and do more
  than ever before
• EQUITY Shortages of qualified teachers are most
  severe in high-poverty communities

3
Unequal Impact of Teacher Shortages
Source National Center for Education
Statistics, Americas Teachers Profile of a
Profession, 1993-94 (1997)
4
Unequal Distribution of Out-of-Field
TeachingPercentage of Teachers Out-of-Field
5
Who Gets Under Qualified Teachers?
23
14
Avg. of faculty teaching without appropriate
credentials
8
5
Highest achievement quartile
3rd quartile
2nd quartile
Lowest achievement quartile
Student Achievement scoring ranges
6
Cumulative Effects of Teacher Sequence on Fifth
Grade Math Scores Tennessee
7
Effects on Students Reading Scores Dallas
(Grades 4-6)
8
Effects on Students Math Scores Dallas (Grades
3-5)
9
Unequal Student Access to Effective Teachers
Most Effective Teachers
Least Effective Teachers
Source Sanders Rivers, Cumulative and
Residual Effects of Teachers on Future Student
Academic Achievement (1996).
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Section 1112(c)(1)(L) requires each LEA receiving
title I, Part A funds to ensure....that low-
income students and minority students are not
taught at rates higher than other students by
unqualified, out-of-field, or inexperienced
teachers.
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What Can We Do?

• Know the real problem(s)

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Why Teachers Leave

• Low salaries
• Lack of support from school administrators
• Student discipline problems
• Lack of teacher input into school decision making

13
What Can We Do?

• Know the real problem(s)

• Examine
• Sources of teachers
• Rates and reasons for attrition
• Numbers of teacher by vacancies district, grade
  level, and subject area

14
What Can We Do?

• Know the real problem(s)
• Look at research. What seems to work?
• Look at promising practices.

15
Teacher Recruitment What Seems to Work?

• Raising standards and salaries

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Beginning Salaries for Teachers Compared to Other
Occupations
50,033
Engineering
Computer Science
49,749
49,548
Math/Statistics
40,033
Sales/Marketing
Accounting
37,143
28,986
Teacher
Average beginning salary for new college
graduates, AFT 2000-2001 data
17
Average Salary Increase for Professionals with a
Masters Degree 1994-1998
Education Week
18
Teacher Salaries Making the Case in Virginia
National Average
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Did you know that...

• 79 of Virginias school districts had salaries
  below 35,000 for teachers with 10 years of
  experience?
• The average salary in Virginia for a Masters
  Degree and 20 years of experience is 39,370?

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Teacher Recruitment What Seems to Work?

• Raising standards and salaries
• Grow-your-own programs
• Effective hiring and placement practices
• www.recruitingteachers.org
• Allowing the return of retired teachers
• High visibility recruitment campaigns with
  alternate preparation opportunities

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Characteristics of Effective Alternate
Certification Programs

• Designed specifically for individuals with at
  least a bachelors degree with keen interest in
  teaching
• Rigorous screening process
• Field-based
• Includes coursework or equivalent experiences in
  professional education studies before and while
  teaching
• Candidates for teaching work closely with trained
  mentor teachers
• Candidates must meet high performance standards
  for completion of the program

22
Teacher Recruitment Whats Promising?

• Increasing the prestige of teaching
• Making credentials, pensions, and credited years
  of experience portable
• Creating a teacher education niche for community
  colleges

23
Community Colleges An Important Link
Started post-secondary education at
Community College
20
Current Teachers
24
First-Year College Students
50
50
25
All Minority Undergraduates
52
48
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Teacher Recruitment Whats Promising?

• Increasing the prestige of teaching
• Making credentials, pensions, and credited years
  of experience portable
• Creating a teacher education niche for community
  colleges
• Solid induction and mentoring programs
• Career growth opportunities
• Creative approaches to filling vacancies

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Teacher Retention What Seems to Work?

• Well-designed and well-funded induction and
  mentoring programs
• Strong, effective school leadership focused on
  instruction
• Schools conducive to learning and teaching

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Teacher Retention Whats Promising?

• Create career advancement opportunities for
  teachers
• Reward teachers for deepening their knowledge and
  skills and for classroom success
• Hold teachers accountable for reasonable learning
  gains, not equal absolute achievement
• Give teachers the option of 12-month contracts

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Hours Spent in a Year on Professional Development
Activities
Source U.S. Department of Education, National
Center for Education Statistics, Fast Response
Survey System, Teacher Survey on Professional
Development and Training, 1998
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Perceived Effectiveness of Professional
Development Activities of Indicating Activity
Improved Their Teaching A Lot
Source U.S. Department of Education, National
Center for Education Statistics, Fast Response
Survey System, Teacher Survey on Professional
Development and Training, 1998.
31
Perceived Effectiveness of Professional
Development
of Teachers Indicating Activity Improved
Teaching a Lot
40
34
29
28
21
12
In-Depth Study in Main Subject
Mentoring by Another Teacher
Regular Collaboration with Others
Integrating Technology
Implementing Standards
Team Planning Period
Collaborative Activities
Traditional Activities
32
Professional Development What Seems to Work?

• Focused on student content standards and how to
  teach them
• Focus determined by data
• School based, collaborative
• Intensive, ongoing
• Results oriented

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What Can States Do?

• Focus on the relationship between PD and student
  performance.
• Insist that school systems document how PD has
  improved teaching practice.
• Establish criteria for what constitutes effective
  PD.
• Abandon policies and practices that model
  ineffective PD.
• Focus on results.

Adapted from speech by Hayes Mizell for the
National Staff Development Council
34
NCLB and Teacher Quality How Do We Meet
Expectations?

• Terry Dozier
• Director
• Teacher Quality Center
• Commonwealth Educational Policy Institute
• Virginia Commonwealth University