New Teacher Center Policy News

June 2012

 

Thoughts About School Reform Efforts and How a Partnership with NTC Could Help   

Eric Hirsch, Chief Officer, External Affairs

 

A recent Washington Post op-ed by Mark Simon about D.C. Public Schools (DCPS) references some startling statistics on teacher retention. It states that 55 percent of new teachers leave the District in their first two years. The author questions the degree to which this "teacher churn" may be undermining education reform in the Nation's Capital.

 

Research has shown that teacher effectiveness is the biggest, school-based determinant of student success. More experienced teachers are known to be more effective, making it extremely important to retain high-quality teachers. Mr. Simon's justifiable concern is that teacher turnover in DCPS could be behind the stall in student achievement gains in the district.

 

Reflecting on the piece made me think about how a comprehensive teacher induction program, aligned within the District's overall human capital management system with its IMPACT evaluation component, could help resolve this dire situation. High-quality teacher induction programs significantly improve teacher retention and also accelerate the effectiveness of new teachers. Waiting for new teachers to figure it out through a "sink or swim" approach is not an option when students' success is at stake.

 

DCPS would do well to look at the turnaround in teacher retention in Chicago Public Schools (CPS). Five years ago, CPS found itself in a situation similar to that of DCPS. Its turnover suggested CPS would lose 3 or 4 out of every 5 teachers hired. The district then partnered with NTC to implement a comprehensive teacher induction program that included mentoring of novice teachers by talented experienced teachers, trained in collaborative and reflective mentoring practices, combined with professional development. As a result, retention rates of new teachers served by the program in CPS rose to 87 percent after just two years. The results are documented in a report, Keeping New Teachers: A First Look at the Influences of Induction in the Chicago Public Schools by the Consortium on Chicago School Research. In addition, Alicia Winckler, Chief Talent Officer at CPS, talks about the turnaround in this video.

 

In his op-ed, Mr. Simon suggests some of the causes for the high teacher churn while acknowledging that most of the turnover comes from teachers leaving voluntarily. While teacher induction would no doubt help with retention rates in DCPS, getting to the bottom of why teachers are choosing to leave is even more important. The article provides a clue to what could be the answer. He references the study "How Teacher Turnover Hurts Student Achievement" that finds that teacher turnover does not just lower the relative quality of teaching but also causes much greater harm affecting school morale and professional culture, weakening collegiality, professional collaboration and trust - all things that are imperative if educators are going to work together to improve achievement. The key here is to understand cause and effect. Do low morale and a poor school culture cause teachers to leave or does high teacher attrition cause low morale and negatively impact culture? Is it a cycle of decline?

 

For many years, NTC's Teaching and Learning Conditions Initiative has been surveying educators to garner their perceptions and provide state and district partners with valuable insights that can inform data-driven policymaking and school improvement planning. We survey on 8 key areas of teaching conditions, including time, facilities and resources, school and teacher leadership and instructional practices and support. One of the key findings of this work is that positive teaching conditions do not just impact teacher retention, but can also be used to attract teacher talent to tougher, hard-to-staff schools in disadvantaged areas. Improving working conditions creates a more stable teaching force. What would a climate survey of DCPS educators reveal? What information could it provide into why teachers are voluntarily choosing to leave after so few years?

 

It seems to me that a teaching and learning conditions survey and the implementation of a comprehensive teaching induction program could go a long way toward providing reform efforts in DCPS, other school districts, and other states across the nation with some new momentum.

NTC in the News

NTC CEO Ellen Moir Profiled in Forbes   

In Forbes' profile, "How Ellen Moir Revolutionized Teaching Through Mentoring," Moir discusses the dilemma she faced as chair of the teacher education program at the University of California, Santa Cruz and her idea to change the current education system. She noticed many of her students wanting to quit within the first few months of their first teaching jobs, so Moir's idea was to create a mentoring model for new teachers where a full-time teacher mentor would be paired with a new teacher. The idea germinated in 1988 and spread. By the 1990s, Moir's idea had traveled throughout California, which prompted her to establish New Teacher Center in 1998 with a nationwide focus. In 2009, NTC became an independent non-profit. Moir says of her success, "You have to be able to tell your story and be really articulate, and you have to have a lot of stakeholders behind you, and you have to create momentum."

 

Read the Forbes Profile  

California-based TOP-Ed Blog Features NTC    

NTC Director of Policy Liam Goldrick recently contributed a column to the Thoughts On Public Education (TOP-Ed) blog, a forum on education policies in California, sponsored by the Silicon Valley Education Foundation. In it, he urges readers to "think systemically and unleash the power and wisdom of teacher leaders as we develop policy initiatives aimed at improving teaching and learning."

 

Read the TOP-Ed Blog  

Policy News

With Shared Vision, Partners Take First Step to Enabling Great Teaching

Earlier this month, NTC Chief External Affairs Officer Eric Hirsch blogged about his experience offering an expert workshop to help attendees of the U.S. Department of Education's 2012 Labor-Management Collaboration Conference better understand why and how to measure, understand and improve teaching conditions. At this conference, the leaders of eight organizations (US DOE, AFT, NEA, CCSSO, AASA, NSBA, Council of Great City Schools and Federal Mediation and Conciliation Services) came together and signed a shared vision on what it would take to transform the teaching profession. Hirsch says, "Signing a shared vision at a convening of state and district education leaders is a great first step toward empowering teachers and enabling great teaching. But putting it into practice will take political will."

NTC's workshop - one of only five offered at the conference - was in partnership with the Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers on our collective efforts in Pittsburgh to use teaching and learning conditions survey data. Our partners in Kentucky also shared examples from our successful work in their state. NTC already has used the Teaching and Learning Conditions Survey to hear from over one million educators in the U.S., solidifying our commitment to supporting the "Conditions for Successful Teaching and Learning" component of the vision statement.

Read the Blog

California Accreditation System Threatened  

The future of California's statewide accreditation system that oversees the quality of teacher preparation and induction programs is in question following spending restrictions faced by the Commission on Teacher Credentialing (CTC). As detailed in NTC's state induction policy summary for California, the accreditation system is comprised of a seven-year cycle of oversight activities including at least one site visit. As reported by SI&A Cabinet Report, the self-funded CTC "has struggled with a growing spending imbalance caused by a deep drop off in fees it collects on teacher applications and test administrations." The CTC is putting on hold all site visits for the 2012-13 academic year and will review its overall process for evaluating California teacher programs during that time. The CTC co-administers the state's Beginning Teacher Support and Assessment (BTSA) program with the California Department of Education.

Read More

U.S. Senate Budget Would Make More Title II Funding Competitive 

Earlier this month, a U.S. Senate committee provided initial approval of a FY 2013 education budget that would direct a larger share of the nearly $2.5 billion Title II state grants program to competitive grants. Five percent of the funds, approximately $130 million, would be competitive under the budget as compared to just 1.5 percent in FY 2012. The budget faces a very uncertain future in the U.S. House of Representatives, which has yet to consider it. NTC was one of just three national non-profit organizations awarded funding under the new competitive SEED Grant Program.

 

Read Education Week's Politics K-12 blog story  

Good Reads

Benefit Cuts, Restrictions to Collective Bargaining May Threaten Future Teacher Recruitment 

Teachers unions are not exempt from pension and benefit scrutiny as evidenced by such cuts in various California cities and restricted collective bargaining in Wisconsin. In a Time Ideas article, Andy Rotherham cautions that "unless cuts in public-sector benefits are coupled with improvements in working conditions and job satisfaction, there is a real risk that schools will not be able to attract the kind of people we want in classrooms." Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker survived a recall election despite cutting benefits and eliminating most collective bargaining rights for teachers and other public-sector workers. In California, the city of San Jose passed Measure B, which would give voters the opportunity to approve increases in pension benefits and suspend annual raises during fiscal crises, and would require city employees to contribute half the cost of their pension.  

 

Read More  

Shifting Assumptions on Teacher Evaluation   

In Education Week's Transforming Learning blog, Learning Forward Executive Director Stephanie Hirsh writes about her recent experience at a conference and how people are shifting their mindsets about teacher evaluation. Like many people, Hirsh was holding onto the assumption that when people talk about teacher evaluation, professional learning and teacher support is not part of the conversation. However, she realized that the teacher evaluation topic is evolving and many people are discussing professional learning for teachers. Hirsh outlines three aspects of professional learning, including the needs of the individual educator, the educators' needs at the team and school level, and the educators' knowledge and skills to meet state, system and school improvement goals.

 

Read More
SCOPE Report on Comprehensive Evaluation Systems 

The Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education (SCOPE) just released a report, Creating a Comprehensive System for Evaluating and Supporting Effective Teaching, that identifies a teaching-career continuum and comprehensive, career-long professional development system focusing on effectiveness. The report notes that current teacher evaluation systems in the United States do not focus on teacher support and cannot clearly identify successful teachers from struggling ones. The report also focuses on the importance of policymakers addressing the teaching and learning environment and individual teacher's abilities.

 

 Read more and download the report  

 

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.

 

  

 
In This Issue
Thoughts About School Reform Efforts & How a Partnership with NTC Could Help
NTC CEO Ellen Moir Profiled in Forbes
California-based TOP-Ed Blog Features NTC
With Shared Vision, Partners Take First Step to Enabling Great Teaching
California Accreditation System Threatened
U.S. Senate Budget Would Make More Title II Funding Competitive
Good Reads
Newsletter Archive

 

 

 

NTC Job Openings   

The New Teacher Center is seeking qualified candidates for several positions. If you are interested in applying for any of our available positions, please click on the links below.

Current Postings:
Program Coordinator, JNTP
Director, NTC Boston
Senior Director, Programs and Partnerships Operations
Director, Chicago School Leadership
Senior Vice President, Products
Director, NTC LA

More Information on How to Apply

State Policy Updates  

Visit the NTC website for updates to our 2011 state induction policy summaries. Summary pages for the states of Hawaii, Maryland, North Dakota, Ohio and Vermont have 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. We plan to release updated policy summaries for all 50 states early next year.

Read NTC State Policy Summaries 

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