Teachers Are Learners, Too 

Amidst the recent flurry of state legislative activity around teachers and teaching, I've been thinking about what else is needed. My conclusion? Policymakers need to focus on teachers as learners.

In 2011 many policy efforts to strengthen educator effectiveness have focused narrowly on identifying and removing poorly performing teachers. Where that gets us is largely dependent on who replaces them. But teachers feel under attack as a result of certain reform rhetoric and the one-sidedness of such policy changes. 

Even the critical work of building educator evaluation systems sometimes appears to prioritize grading or ranking teachers over improving teaching performance. Let's be clear: Designing and implementing evaluation must include two distinct components: (1) measuring teacher performance and (2) systems to develop and, as needed, improve teacher performance.

Policymakers must make teacher development a more central focus of their current efforts. Teaching policy cannot become a set of solely accountability-focused or punitive measures. A true performance management system for teachers does not only measure teaching performance, but also provides systemic opportunities to develop teaching practice and help teachers continuously learn and improve.

New teachers, in particular, need special attention both in schools as well as within teaching policy. Beginning educators have distinct needs and an initial learning curve. Research shows that comprehensive, high-quality teacher induction accelerates new teacher effectiveness, improves student learning and reduces teacher attrition. That's why, at NTC, we believe that every state should require every first- and second-year educator to receive induction and mentoring assistance.

Unfortunately, while states are demanding more accountability from educators, they are simultaneously reducing or zeroing out dedicated appropriations for teacher induction and suspending programs entirely. As NTC's upcoming Review of State Policies on Teacher Induction will show, most state policies lack a strong commitment to high-quality induction and mentoring. Few state policies envision teacher induction as a vehicle for instructional improvement, establish quality program standards, identify and train effective mentors, or provide local programs with the needed resources to provide meaningful new teacher support.

If newly adopted policies are going to create the desired transformative change, they will need to attend to teachers as learners. To accomplish this, policy must chart a balanced and comprehensive course to strengthen teaching and to provide every student with an excellent teacher. This has to include the provision of high-quality induction, on-the job professional development and supportive teaching conditions to enable all educators to maximize their effectiveness. If we don't help teachers to succeed, we will diminish their potential impact on student learning and likely make the teaching profession a less attractive option for the current and future generations.

Liam Goldrick

Director of Policy

 Standing on the Shoulders of Giants

A May 2011 report from the National Council on Education and the Economy (NCEE) looks at why students in many international educational systems outperform American students. Its primary finding is that these other systems pursue strategies that the United States has not adopted and that the U.S. has enacted policies simply not found in these high-performing nations.

What do the top performers do that we don't? The NCEE report suggests that chief among them is a "set of connected strategies" that: (1) Elevate the status of the teaching profession by raising entry standards, (2) Offer competitive compensation and advancement opportunities through career ladders and leadership roles, and (3) Provide professional working conditions. The report also details the differences between the integrated approach to pre-service education and clinical induction/apprenticeship in nations like Finland and Singapore as compared to the U.S.  

Read more 

 Teachers Under Siege

 Good Reads  

Teacher Reform All Wrong? 

Dana Goldstein, Spencer Fellow in education journalism at Columbia University, discusses whether the U.S. is doing "teacher reform all wrong" in a Washington Post blog. Goldstein addresses this question by reviewing the new NCEE report [see above]. Her takeaway is that "teaching reform efforts should focus more heavily on rebuilding the pipeline into the profession and less on creating complex reward and punishment systems for current teachers.... For those teachers already in the classroom, the single most powerful professional development experience is not merit pay, but good, old-fashioned collaboration, working side-by-side - over the course of a full year - with an experienced mentor." Read the blog post.

Teacher Effectiveness Research   

The Education Writers Association has released a research brief, What Studies Say About Teacher Effectiveness. The brief, written by Education Week assistant editor Stephen Sawchuk, summarizes more than 40 research studies and additional resources and is organized around a few questions about teacher effectiveness in K-12 education, including "Are teachers the most important factor affecting student achievement?"  Read the brief.

The Future of School Reform

Education Week, in partnership with the Harvard Graduate School of Education, is running a seven-part series about overhauling current education reform strategies. Topics addressed include creating a system for teacher learning, recasting teachers as human beings rather than superheroes, and schooling as a knowledge profession. Read the series.

Skoll Award Interview  

with Ellen Moir  

Rahim Kanani, Editor-in-Chief of World Affairs Commentary, interviewed NTC Founder and CEO Ellen Moir after she received the 2011 Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship. Read the interview here.

NTC Staff 

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