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Survey Says ...
| Liam Goldrick, Director of Policy
The month of March heralded the release of two high-profile surveys of teachers. The 2011 MetLife Survey of the American Teacher found a sharp decline in job satisfaction among teachers - its lowest point in more than 20 years. Teachers cited budget cuts, fears of layoffs, larger class sizes, and the sometime caustic debate about teacher accountability as reasons for their dissatisfaction. Teacher surveyed by Scholastic and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (Primary Sources: 2012) reported a number of challenges to be addressed. First, family, community and school-wide support must be strengthened to further learning outcomes. Second, they noted rising academic and behavioral challenges among their students and reported increasing numbers of students living in poverty and those hungry and homeless. Third, they requested more frequent evaluation and feedback on their own instructional practice. Solutions to these issues will require the work of schools and communities - drawing upon the commitment and focus of policymakers, school leaders, educators and parents. NTC is no bystander in the teacher survey arena. Through our Teaching and Learning Conditions Initiative, we are surveying approximately 250,000 school-based licensed educators through administration of at least eight surveys this school year, including statewide in Massachusetts and North Carolina. Recent NTC surveys have found positive assessments of teaching and learning conditions in schools, districts and states where leaders intentionally focus on creating a supportive culture for instruction. Our surveys provide school-level data to drive the kinds of reforms that help ensure new teachers are supported and all teachers work in environments that maximize success. We recognize that the context for teaching and learning is crucial to the success of the entire school community - students and teachers alike. Policymakers and education leaders have got to mind their rhetoric and consider how classroom teachers perceive their messages. They should engage educators in contributing to positive change - or otherwise risk damaging the attractiveness of the teaching profession and dissuading prospective candidates from considering a career in the classroom. They should heed lessons from other nations by attending to a robust pipeline into the profession and providing requisite supports to our newest educators. Finally, they should provide the type of professional development opportunities requested by educators, particularly in advance of the implementation of key reforms, including the Common Core Standards and new teacher evaluation systems. Read the 2011 MetLife Survey of the American Teacher Read the 2012 Scholastic/Gates Teacher Survey |
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U.S. Department of Education awards NTC
$4.98M SEED Grant
| On March 7, U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan announced New Teacher Center as a recipient of a nearly $5 million grant to support novice teachers and principals in the Hillsborough County Public Schools (HCPS) in Florida, and to administer its nationally recognized teaching conditions survey to all school-based licensed educators in the district, providing district leaders with data and tools to help them enhance school improvement efforts. The grant is funded under the Supporting Effective Educators Development (SEED) program.
NTC's work in Hillsborough is part of the district's Empowering Effective Teachers Initiative that aims to transform the way it hires, supports, evaluates and compensates teachers and school leaders. It is part of a systems-approach where evaluation, induction and leadership development are all critical components or facets of a more comprehensive talent management strategy. Read More |
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Taking the Reins and Leading the Way:
Kentucky's TELL Survey
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Ann Maddock, Senior Policy Advisor
Kentucky education leaders have worked with NTC to document and analyze the teaching and learning environments in schools as a first step toward developing data-driven improvement plans. In the spring of 2011, NTC administered a teaching conditions survey of school-based educators in Kentucky, resulting in a record-setting 80% response rate for a first administration of a statewide survey. The high participation rate on the TELL Kentucky survey was due to the collaborative work of education stakeholders in the state. Under Governor Beshear's leadership, Education Commissioner Terry Holliday convened a working 'Coalition of Partners'. NTC worked closely with the Partners to develop effective communication strategies about the importance of the survey, the need to gather such data from teachers, and use of the data in school improvement practices.
Through 2010 legislation that gave Commissioner Holliday authority to assess School-Based Decision Making Councils in persistently low-achieving (District 180) schools, the first policies were established to use teaching conditions survey data. Further support came as a result of 92% of schools reaching the minimum threshold of 50% response rate to have their own data. NTC has provided school and district guides for using the data for school improvement, and worked with many of the Partners to produce training modules or guides, to determine school or district level issues to address in the next two years specific to their needs:
- Kentucky Department of Education's "SBDM Guide". All SBDM Council members are required to participate in annual training. The focus for 2011-2012 was the analysis of school-level TELL data.
- Kentucky School Boards Association developed a guide for local school board members on using district TELL results.
- Kentucky Association of School Administrators continues to hold trainings in their "Leadership Academies" across the state, using the TELL data to guide school improvement efforts.
- Kentucky Educators Association developed a KEA Guide to using district results and continues to focus efforts on communicating the value of using the TELL Kentucky results.
- The Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence assisted in the development of the "TELL Kentucky Survey: A Parent Guide to School Improvement."
In the fall of 2011, Commissioner Holliday announced the TELL Kentucky Winners' Circle Awards, recognizing ten schools across the state that demonstrated outstanding teaching and learning conditions. The process of selecting these schools included forty additional schools as Honorable Mentions. Together, with the Winners' Circle schools, these fifty schools represent a wide range of demographics and provide a valuable list of 'best practices' to utilize across the state.
The Kentucky State Board of Education and Kentucky Department of Education continue their efforts to utilize the TELL Kentucky data. For example, persistently low achieving schools (District 180 schools) receive targeted training on utilizing the TELL data. The specific findings in these schools have assisted the Department on ways to focus valuable resources when providing assistance. Additionally, the development of the new evaluation instruments for administrators integrates the TELL Kentucky survey results by requiring documentation of using the results in annual school improvement planning.
At the April 2012 State Board meeting, NTC will present the final report on the findings from the 2011 TELL Kentucky survey. Also, the Department will highlight the many ways the TELL Kentucky data has been used across the state by the stakeholder groups, and share some excellent examples of school and district leaders that are using this data.
All resources mentioned above may be accessed at www.tellkentucky.org.
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| TFA Founder: Evaluation About More Than Releasing Value-Added Scores |
In a Wall Street Journal op-ed, Teach for America founder and CEO Wendy Kopp criticized New York City's public release of teachers' value-added rankings. Kopp explains that such rankings are an important indicator of teacher effectiveness, but not when publicly posting them distracts teachers from being able to focus on collaborative teaching. She appears to share NTC's perspective that teacher evaluation systems at root must be about strengthening teaching practice. Kopp describes the key question as "how to cultivate high-quality teaching," and suggests that the answer in part involves providing teachers "feedback, support and professional development."
Read the Op Ed
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OECD Report on the Experience of New Teachers
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The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's (OECD) 2008 Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) looks at the lives of new teachers in 23 member nations. In most countries, new teachers are given the same responsibilities as more experienced teachers but are twice as likely to report that they have insufficient classroom management skills. Most new teachers also reported receiving induction or mentoring support, but this assistance too seldom provided regular feedback to improve classroom teaching. The report offers four policy recommendations: (1) reduced teaching responsibilities for beginning teachers; (2) regular appraisal and feedback to new teachers; (3) ensure that induction and mentoring programs provide such intensive feedback on teaching; and (4) provide new teacher focused support and development around classroom management issues.
Read the Report Summary
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Federal Report Examines Teacher Equity
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The U.S. Department of Education's Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) is a tool for analyzing equity and educational opportunities in U.S. school districts. A new report, with data from the 2009-2010 school year, looks at numerous variables including teacher equity. For example, it finds that schools serving the most African-American and Hispanic students are nearly twice as likely to employ beginning teachers. The CRDC database is fully accessible to the public and includes even more detailed and comprehensive data.
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NTC Policy News is a monthly publication by the New Teacher Center. It is produced with funding support from the Joyce Foundation. Based in Chicago, Illinois, the Joyce Foundation invests in initiatives to improve public education and works to close the achievement gap by improving the quality of teachers in schools that serve low-income and minority children.
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NASBE Webinar TODAY
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The National Association of State Boards of Education (NASBE), in partnership with NTC, invites you to attend a webinar on Thursday, March 29 at 3:00 p.m. EDT that will highlight the importance of comprehensive induction programs for new teachers and the role of state policy in developing, supporting and evaluating these programs. NTC Policy Director Liam Goldrick will discuss our recently released report "Review of State Policies on Teacher Induction".
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State Policy Updates
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Visit the NTC web site in the coming months for updates to our 2010-11 state induction policy summaries. Hawaii's page already has been updated to reflect policy changes from the latter half of 2011. If information for your state has changed, please contact us at
policy@newteachercenter.org.
Read NTC State Policy Summaries
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From Disillusionment
to Rejuvenation:
An inspiring story from
a first-year teacher
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Last December, NTC CEO Ellen Moir received an email from a first-year teacher in response to Moir's article, "Phases of First-Year Teaching." The beginning teacher told Moir that she was "slowly wading through disillusionment" and "trying not to drown." She said Moir's article helped her realize she's not alone. The teacher was invited to speak at NTC's 14th National Symposium in February to share her story with attendees.
Read About the Teacher's Story
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