Educators "TELL Delaware" the Strengths and Needs of Their Teaching Conditions
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Dalia Zabala, Associate Director of Policy
Educators need supportive school environments where they are valued, trusted and empowered in order to collaborate to improve instruction. New Teacher Center's (NTC) Teaching and Learning Conditions Initiative assists states and school districts to document and analyze how educators view their teaching conditions and to identify the impact on school communities. NTC administers the Teaching, Empowering, Leading and Learning (TELL) Survey of licensed educators and provides policymakers with state-, district- and school-level data and tools that guide data-driven decisions on policy and practice. Since 2008, NTC has conducted the survey in 20 states, upholding the voices of almost a million educators.
In 2013, a collaborative effort between the Delaware Department of Education, the Delaware State Board of Education, the Delaware School Boards Association, the Delaware Association of School Administrators, and the Rodel Foundation of Delaware brought the TELL survey to the state of Delaware. This was the first statewide opportunity for educators to "TELL Delaware" their perceptions regarding time, facilities and resources, community support and involvement, management of student conduct, teacher and school leadership, professional development, new teacher induction, and instructional practices and supports at their schools. A total of 6,153 (59.2 percent) licensed public school educators participated in the survey in January and February 2013. Seventy-eight percent (175 of 225) of the state's public schools met the minimum participation requirement of 50% to have their school-level data released. All results are posted at http://www.telldelaware.org. Teaching and learning conditions matter because they impact two significant areas of national interest - teacher retention and student learning. Studies have found statistically significant relationships between teachers' perceptions of working conditions and their plans to remain in the school or leave. Research also suggests that teaching and learning conditions are predictors of student achievement. The TELL survey has undergone both internal and external analyses for its validity and reliability to measure eight constructs of teaching and learning conditions. (You may learn more about the survey's validity and reliability here). Statewide, Delaware educators agree on a number of positive things about their teaching and learning conditions. The majority of educators reported: - Their schools are good places to work and learn;
- Positive use of collaborative planning time;
- They are respected for their skills and expertise;
- Structures exist to support their professional growth; and
- Structures exist to manage student behavior and provide a safe school environment.
Survey results also revealed some areas for concern, including: - Educators feel their expertise is not being fully leveraged;
- Many new educators expressed that they are not receiving sufficient induction and mentoring support;
- A majority of educators reported that professional development is not differentiated or evaluated and does not receive follow-up;
- Educators stressed that their time is not protected or sufficient.
In the coming month, the TELL data will be used to help drive and shape statewide efforts, including: - Common Ground for Common Core - a statewide effort to build principal and teacher leadership around the shifts of the Common Core State Standards;
- Informing discussions among collaborative groups regarding the improvement of educator preparation programs;
- Strengthening the implementation of professional learning communities (PLCs);
- Establishing Teacher Advisory Councils to discuss PLCs and the state educator evaluation system; and
- Delaware Talent Cooperative - a cadre of highly effective teacher leaders with a voice in a statewide policy.
Education Secretary Mark Murphy said that TELL data will inform the revision of state policies on teacher induction and mentoring practices. "We have talked about how many educators we lose over those first few years, and it is way too many," said Murphy. "We lose some of these people because they don't have a positive and strong first-year experience. [W]e are taking a critical look at our induction and mentoring program," Murphy explained, in response to survey data revealing that 40 percent of beginning teachers have never been observed by their mentor and 52 percent have never observed their mentor's classroom, even though new teacher induction is required statewide. NTC has developed a number of TELL resources and reports to support and inform state and local stakeholders. They are available at http://www.telldelaware.org/tools. Some of the resources include: - Tools for schools and districts to facilitate discussions regarding their teaching and learning conditions and guidance on how to use this data to inform school improvement plans.
- Analyses and reports connecting teaching and learning conditions with student achievement and teacher retention; and various group comparisons.
Delaware is the first state to release results from this year's TELL survey. The states of Colorado, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Ohio, Tennessee, and Vermont as well as numerous school districts have administered the survey and will have data available within the next few months.
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ASCD's Education Update Features NTC
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 School district leaders who want to keep their best teachers should invest in new teacher induction, according to the feature article in the April 2013 issue of ASCD's member newsletter, Education Update. In the article, NTC Senior Vice President of Induction Programs Cindy Brunswick describes how beginning teacher induction programs are not all created equal, and that comprehensive models like NTC's have the most impact.
"We argue that induction is a good investment to make. If you can make that investment and get new teachers started on a path of inquiry and continuous development, we have a much better chance keeping them in the profession and positively impacting student achievement," says Brunswick.
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NTC to Work With New Hawaii Leadership Institute
| | The Hawaii Department of Education and Hawaii State Board of Education have created a Leadership Institute to develop effective public school leaders. Staff from New Teacher Center and staff from the Professional Development and Educational Research Institute (PDERI) will staff the Institute.
According to State Superintendent Kathryn Matayoshi, "The need for a new approach to school leadership is evident, especially as we face the potential retirement of a number of veteran principals. The challenges and opportunities for developing effective leadership starts where the leadership pipeline begins - identification, recruitment, development, and support of school leaders."
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Forbes: Ellen Moir on Scaling NTC's Impact on Teacher Effectiveness
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 In an article published by Forbes, Ellen Moir describes how NTC is seizing upon a once-in-a-century opportunity to scale its impact and take teacher effectiveness to new heights. Moir compares taking an organization to scale to climbing a mountain, where the terrain and landscape changes. NTC's generative board members have proven to be partners in guiding the organization on its mission to transform education by accelerating teacher effectiveness.
Both Forbes and The Skoll Foundation published this article in advance of the 2013 Skoll World Forum where Ellen Moir and NTC Board Chair Lance Fors presented on Unleashing Incremental Potential for Impact.
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President's Budget Invests in Educators
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President Obama's FY 2014 federal budget includes a 4.5 percent increase in education spending. It would prioritize educators and the teaching profession in the following ways:
- $5 billion in one-time mandatory funds for the RESPECT initiative to support efforts to transform the teaching profession;
- $3 billion for the new Excellent Instructional Teams program to fund state and district efforts to increase the effectiveness of teachers and principals (includes $400 million for a Teacher and Leader Innovation Fund, $98 million for a School Leadership Grant Program and a 25 percent set-aside ($617 million) within the $2.5 billion Title II State Grants program);
- $98 million for the School Leadership Program (SLP), which provides funds for school leader preparation and professional development. In 2014, the SLP competition would place a priority on supporting projects that develop, evaluate and expand large-scale and evidence-based professional development for current school leaders; and
- $80 million for competitive grants to support the recruitment and preparation of effective STEM teachers for high-need schools and $35 million to pilot a new STEM Master Teacher Corps.
The President's budget also includes an increase in funding for the Investing in Innovation (i3) program that has scaled up the most effective approaches in high-need areas. NTC was the recipient of an i3 award in 2012.
In a budget hearing on Capitol Hill last week, Education Secretary Arne Duncan received pushback from senators critical of the President's decision to level fund formula grant programs such as Title I and Special Education.
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Equal Access to Quality Education Act of 2013
| The Equal Access to Quality Education Act of 2013 (H.R. 1334) was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives on March 21 to establish a grant program to ensure that students in high-need schools have equal access to a quality education. Grantees would establish or support a teacher induction and retention program that provides support and advances the retention of beginning teachers and principals during their first two years on the job, and which promotes effective teaching and leadership skills.
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Arkansas To Launch New Induction Program
|  In the fall of 2013, the state of Arkansas will launch a new novice teacher induction program. The Arkansas Induction Mentoring Model (AIMM) will align with the state's new teacher evaluation system and Danielson's Framework for Teaching. AIMM will reflect a collaborative approach to mentoring with specific modules of instruction for use by mentors and novice teachers to facilitate the mentoring process and ensure quality mentoring for all new teachers.
Arkansas' current state policy, as profiled in NTC's Review of State Policies on Teacher Induction, requires one year of induction support and successful completion of a performance assessment by the novice teacher.
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In a recent Washington Post op-ed, Bill Gates cautions that if we aren't careful to build an evaluation system that "provides feedback and that teachers trust, this opportunity to dramatically improve the U.S. education system will be wasted." At NTC, we wholeheartedly agree that evaluation systems must be developed collaboratively with educators and must provide meaningful feedback to strengthen teaching practice - something that value-added data alone cannot do.
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Harvard Education Letter: Promising Practice of Induction
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 Induction and teacher turnover are associated in such a way that teachers who participate in induction programs are more likely to stay in the profession and in their schools. However, not all induction programs are alike. This article, written by Robert G. Smith, former superintendent of Arlington (VA) Public Schools, outlines promising induction program practices.
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Using Technology to Support Rookie Teachers
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An article written by Todd Airola, an induction coordinator in California, outlines strategies for using technology to facilitate observations of new teachers, connect new teachers with trained mentors who can provide constructive feedback, and promote reflective practice. |
Fixing Teacher Supply to Improve Teacher Evaluation
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Paul Bruno argues, in a Scholastic blog post, that "improving the supply (and retention) of teachers is likely to be a necessary precondition for improving teacher evaluation."
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New York Times: Helping Teachers Learn
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The money quote from this New York Times editorial is: "[A]n obsessive focus on holding teachers accountable for test scores without an equal emphasis on actually improving classroom teaching ... could fatally undermine the effort to create meaningful evaluation systems."
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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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Newsletter Archive
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REL Mid-Atlantic Webinar
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Induction and Mentoring of New Teachers
Question in focus: What are effective mentoring models for new teachers? How effective are they at retaining and improving teaching?
Presenter: Ellen Moir, CEO and founder of New Teacher Center
April 25, 2013
3:00 - 5:00 p.m. EDT
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Illinois Guide for Evaluating and Supporting Beginning Teachers
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Download a copy of our recently published policy guide, Cultivating Effective Teachers Through Evaluation and Support: A Guide for Illinois Policymakers and Educational Leaders. It explores how Illinois can solidify the 2010 Performance Evaluation Reform Act's (PERA) role in informing and supporting new teacher development. It offers lessons of interest to other states that are reforming teacher evaluation systems.
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NTC News Updates
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Read about NTC's latest news updates and media coverage here.
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NTC Job Openings
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NTC seeks qualified candidates for the following positions.
Current Postings:
-Federal Programs Administrator
-Executive Assistant
-Development Associate |
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