New Teacher Center Policy News

November 2014

 

Deepening Our Commitment to Building Better Teachers

By Liam Goldrick, Director of Policy

 

A key characteristic of great teachers is their knowledge that there's always room to grow. That's no different from what we expect of our students.

 

In her new book, Building a Better Teacher, Chalkbeat's Elizabeth Green takes readers on a journey to understand precisely what makes a teacher great. She addresses the age-old question: Are great teachers born or made? Green concludes that they're made -- and that there's more nuance within teaching than simply being "good" or "bad". 

 

Green also criticizes prevailing philosophies to improving teaching.

"The cold truth is that accountability and autonomy .. have left us with no real plan," Green writes. 

 

Policymakers, educators, education reformers, and pundits have long debated the merits of either system. Both recognize the research that the single biggest factor of student success in schools is the quality of the teacher in the classroom. But both often ignore teachers' need for intensive, on-the-job learning - a pathway to improve and become the great teachers our students deserve.

 

We have known how to develop teachers for years. New Teacher Center's approach to inducting beginning teachers aligns with the best practices identified by researchers.

 

The truth is that great teachers aren't born and are never completely "made" - but continuously develop over the course of their careers. There is no such thing as a finished product when it comes to highly effective teachers. Talented, experienced teachers are reflective, curious and persistent. Like their students, they are learners, too.

 

It is our hope that all teachers have the opportunity to come into the profession through intensive pre-service programs, segue seamlessly into induction programs contextualized to meet their unique needs as novice educators, and receive opportunities within districts and schools for career-long professional learning.

 

The reality is that such comprehensive, high-impact approaches to individualized teacher learning and on-the-job support are not the norm in American schools. NTC is doing its part however. In recent years, we've expanded our reach to support the development of nearly 25,000 new teachers annually.

 

Our federal and state policies too seldom support proven approaches to developing beginning teachers. While the federal government and certain states have seeded high-quality induction through competitive grant programs, the quality requirements and dedicated time for educator development are sorely lacking for most new teachers. For example, only three U.S. states require and fund multi-year induction programs for beginning teachers. And the federal government spends nearly $3 billion annually on teacher professional development without quality standards.

 

I had the opportunity to participate on an Education Writers Association panel last month that addressed the role of teacher induction in contributing to better teaching. (That same convening featured a session with Green discussing her book. The video is available on YouTube.)

 

At EWA, I argued that we must improve our policies and practices -aligning them with what works. Teachers need mentors and coaches to help them successfully hone and expand their instructional strategies within the context of their school and classroom. If no one is there to mediate the change, the change will not be successful.

 

Green's book sets us up to ask the, "So now what?" Where do we take what we know about preparing and developing teachers and scale it?

 

From the U.S. government on down to individual schools, we need policies and systems that support the growth of all teachers. They should include:

  1. High quality, multi-year induction programs for beginning teachers. There is going to be a huge influx of beginning teachers into the workforce in the coming years. These teachers have unique needs and accelerating their effectiveness through intensive mentoring has proven to increase student achievement and retain them in the classroom longer.
  2. High quality, multi-year induction programs for beginning school leaders and coaching for all school leaders. Similar to beginning teachers, new school leaders have a unique set of needs. Effective school leaders create school cultures and teaching conditions necessary for educators to thrive.
  3. Instructional improvement hinges on sustained and targeted feedback. Expert teachers, carefully selected and trained as mentors and instructional coaches, are the mechanism for such feedback and support.
  4. With greater access to online professional learning, we need to shift our conception of what professional development looks like (one size fits all) to personalized learning pathways for all educators.

What do you think it's going to take for us to get there?

 

NTC News

Improving Teaching and Learning Conditions

Results from the 2012-13 Teacher Follow-up Survey - a nationally representative sample survey of public and private school K-12 teachers who participated in the previous year's Schools and Staffing Survey - show that:

  • Of the 3.4 million public school teachers teaching in 2011-12, 84 percent remained at the same school, 8 percent moved to a different school, and 8 percent left the profession.
  • Among the public school teachers who left the profession, approximately 51 percent reported more manageable workloads and 53 percent reported better working conditions in their new positions outside of the classroom.

Improving teaching conditions is essential to improving teacher retention and addressing equitable access to effective teaching. When teachers work in schools with better teaching conditions, they are more likely to remain in their school, perform effectively, and ultimately improve student learning. 

 

To this end, the Center for Great Teachers and Leaders, in partnership with NTC, released a module that provides five hours of material that state and district officials can use to:

  • Understand what teaching conditions are and why they matter;
  • Discover how teaching conditions data can be used to create a more positive teaching and learning environment;
  • Understand how to use multiple sources of teaching conditions data to promote educator effectiveness and professional growth; and
  • Explore resources that support effective school improvement planning using teaching conditions data.

The complete module, along with a slide presentation, handouts and a Facilitator's Guide can be accessed here.

Teachers Need Help Implementing Common Core

Ellen Moir, NTC's Chief Executive Officer, was quoted in an EdSource article about a report released in October by Scholastic, Inc. The report summarizes 1,676 teacher survey responses about the preparation they received to teach to Common Core State Standards (CCSS). "The finding that jumped out at me and gave me pause was that 84 percent of teachers said they needed quality professional development" to successfully implement CCSS, said Moir. Further, 86% of teachers reported needing support and resources to identify Common Core-aligned instructional materials, 78% need additional planning time, and 78% need more opportunities to collaborate with other teachers.

   

These findings reflect that teachers need time to learn and systems need time to implement new standards and programs. Opportunities afforded through high-quality professional learning and induction opportunities for beginning and veteran teachers and time to collaborate with and learn from colleagues is invaluable to teachers. Unfortunately, we do not systemically support teachers through job-embedded opportunities to learn and grow on the job - and that is one hurdle we must continue to address. 

Policy News

Oregon Adopts Teacher Mentor Program Standards

In August 2014, Oregon joined the ranks of 15 other states that have adopted induction or mentoring program standards. The State Board of Education approved Oregon Mentoring Program Standards. The standards describe the structures, functions, processes, and effective practices necessary for a quality program. NTC has published its own set of Induction Program Standards that has informed the development of standards in states across the country, including California, Hawaii, North Carolina, Ohio and Oregon.

 

Learn more about the importance of state program standards for teacher induction in NTC's state policy review.

Kentucky Survey Propels Stronger Teacher Mentoring

An article in Kentucky Teacher highlights work with beginning teachers being done in a Jefferson County middle school. Stuart Middle School is recognized on the Kentucky Department of Education's Best Practices website for its effective use of teacher mentoring to improve new teacher retention. The program began in 2011 after the TELL Kentucky Survey, administered by NTC, showed that more than 30 percent of new teachers did not consider the school's support of them as a deciding factor in returning to the school the following year. 

 

Access Kentucky's TELL Survey results by state, district, and school here.

New Jersey Eyes Reforms to Teacher Induction

In response to the New Jersey Higher Education Task Force's recommendation that education partnerships be built to identify and recommend needed reforms to teacher preparation and development, a coalition of education groups formed the Garden State Alliance for Strengthening Education (GSASE). As a first step to establishing a strong alliance, GSASE developed and released a report that offers recommendations for each phase of the professional continuum for teachers, including pre-service preparation, induction, professional learning, and teacher leadership. Recommendations for strengthening induction include:

  • Developing state induction standards;
  • Standards-based mentor training;
  • Dedicated funding for induction and mentoring support;
  • Expanding the induction period to two years; and
  • Regulations regarding specific mentor/mentee contact time.

Learn more about New Jersey in NTC's Review of State Policies on Teacher Induction.

Good Reads

Achieving A Stronger California Teaching Force    

EdSource recently highlighted the most promising proposed reforms that would lead to a more effective teaching force in California. Its report identified 7 key challenges that these reforms would address:

  1. California largely separates academic study - "what" to teach - from professional training - "how" to teach.
  2. With virtually no state oversight, student teaching varies widely in quality. There is increasing difficulty in securing appropriate placements and skilled master teachers for teachers in training.
  3. California's teaching credential standards do not focus on early childhood or middle school, leaving teachers less prepared for these critical periods of child development.
  4. In the absence of state requirements for professional development, training opportunities vary widely by district.
  5. Training requirements for special education teachers have been relaxed and many are not trained in the basics of classroom teaching.
  6. New teachers have difficulty gaining access to high-quality support programs with experienced mentors - the type of support that would improve effectiveness and increase retention.
  7. Enrollments in teacher preparation programs have plummeted.
Fostering Effective School Leadership

New Leaders and the George W. Bush Institute's Alliance to Reform Education Leadership released a report that outlines a framework and recommended policy actions to promote conditions that support effective leadership. The framework presents four key elements: (1) aligning resources with strategic priorities; (2) creating a culture of support, collaboration, and district accountability; (3) promote and fund activities that encourage effective principal management and support; and (4) promote systems and policies to effectively manage school talent.

 

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
Deepening Our Commitment to Building Better Teachers
Improving Teaching and Learning Conditions
Teachers Need Help Implementing Common Core
Oregon Adopts Teacher Mentor Program Standards
Kentucky Survey Propels Stronger Teacher Mentoring
New Jersey Eyes Reforms to Teacher Induction
Good Reads
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