All for All: Teacher Excellence for Every Child

Challenges of 21st Century Teaching

Higher Standards for Learning

More Diverse Students with Greater Educational Needs

More than 25% live in poverty

More than 10% have identified learning disabilities

More than 15% are new English language learners

Greater Expectations of Schools for Ensuring Success

A Changing Economy Makes Education more Important

1900 1950 20000%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

Low skill jobs Knowledge work jobs

The Consequences of Under-Education

• A high school dropout in 2000 has less than 1 chance in 4 of getting a job.

• That job will earn less than ½ of what the same job earned 20 years ago.

• Special needs students are 3x as likely to be retained and 4x as likely to dropout of school.

• Lack of education is ever more strongly correlated with welfare dependency and incarceration.

• 40% of adjudicated juvenile delinquents have learning disabilities that were never diagnosed in school. 50% of inmates are functionally illiterate.

The Critical Importance of Teacher Knowledge & Skills

“What the evidence suggests most strongly is that teacher quality matters and should be a major focus of efforts to upgrade the quality of schooling. Skilled teachers are the most critical of all schooling inputs.”

- Ronald Ferguson“Paying for Public Education: New Evidence on How and Why Money Matters.” Harvard Journal of Legislation, 28 (Summer 1991), pp. 465-498.

Influence of Teacher Qualifications on Student Achievement

Gains in Math Achievement from 3rd to 5th Grade Due to:

N ational C om m ission on T eaching & A m erica’s F uture, D oing W hat M atters M ost, 1997.

H o m e a nd F a m ily F a c to rs

4 9 %

Te a c he r Q ua lific a tio ns

4 3 %

C la ss S ize 8 %

(parent education, income, language

background, race & location)

(licensing, examination scores, & experience)

D eveloped from data presented in R onald F . Ferguson, Paying for Public Education: N ew Evidence of H ow and W hy M oney M atters, H arvard Journal on Legisla tion . 28 (Summ er 1991): pp. 465 -498 .

9692

80

61

441

83

63

83

70

5039

60

4029

660

680

700

720

740

760

780

800

Low-Low-Low

Low-Low-Avg.

Low-Low-High

Avg.-Avg.-Low

Avg.-Avg.-Avg.

Avg.-Avg.-High

High-High-High

Teacher Sequence

System A System B

Source: W. L. Sanders and J. C. Rivers. Cumulative and Residual Effects of Teachers on Future Student Academic Achievement. Knoxville: University of Tennessee, 1996.

Cumulative Effects of Teacher EffectivenessStudent test scores (5th grade math) by effectiveness level

of teachers over a three-year period, for two metropolitan school systems

1Denotes the corresponding percentile (CTB/McGraw-Hill, 1990, pp. 104-115).

The Teaching Gap Creates Most of the Achievement Gap

• Underqualified teachers teach more than 2 million U.S. students. There are 5 times more underprepared teachers in high-minority schools

• Unprepared teachers have high attrition rates (70% are gone within 3 years) creating a parade of unskilled novices in minority schools

• Students taught by underqualified teachers have significantly lower achievement in reading and mathematics

The Scope of Special Education Shortages

• The annual need for special educators doubled between 1983 and 1998, from 18,000 to 36,000.

• In 1997-98, there were > 32,000 special educators without proper credentials and > 4,000 positions left vacant, comprising 10% of the total.

• In some urban districts, >50% of special needs students are taught by unqualified teachers or aides.

What Causes Teacher “Shortages?”

• Noncompetitive salaries• Inadequate incentives for training and teaching in

shortage fields and locations• Lack of targeted investment in preparation

systems• Unequal funding across districts • Poor working conditions• High turnover for beginning teachers, due to

inadequate mentoring and poor treatment• Dysfunctional school organizations

NCTAF Recommendations

1. Get serious about standards for both students and teachers

2. Reinvent teacher preparation and professional development

3. Fix teacher recruitment and put qualified teachers in every classroom

4. Encourage and reward teacher knowledge and skill

5. Create schools that are organized for student and teacher success

Components of a Teaching Quality System

• Standards for preparation, licensing, and advanced certification: NCATE, INTASC, NBPTS in collaboration with Specialist Associations like CEC

• Recruitment incentives for shortage fields and districts

• High-Quality Preparation Opportunities• Induction Supports• Professional Learning Opportunities• Conditions for Teaching: Curriculum, Assessment,

Materials, Time with Students and Other Teachers, Input into Decisions

What makes a system systematic?

• Policies and programs address all system components in mutually reinforcing ways

• Policies and programs affect all schools and teachers (no loopholes or inequalities)

• Best practices are regularly researched and replicated to upgrade system quality

• State quality standards and processes are aligned and used to build system-wide capacity

• Stable, reliable infrastructure for professional learning is created and sustained over time

Standards for Teaching Diverse Learners are Critical for ALL Teachers

• Augment CEC standards for special educators with INTASC standards for regular and special educators

• Insist that schools of education teach strategies not just awareness of laws

• Develop special education training for in-service teachers that supports multi-modal teaching and accommodations for common disabilities

• Ensure that teachers get strategies, not scripts

ETS study: Correlates of Math and Science Achievement on 8th grade NAEP

Students did better when they had teachers:• W/ a major or minor in the relevant subject matter taught,

• Who received teacher education & professional development in working with special populations

• Who received teacher education or professional development in using teaching strategies that focus on higher-order thinking skills,

• Who received teacher education or professional development in laboratory skills (for science)

Correlates of Reading Achievement on 4th Grade NAEP

Students do better when their teachers:• Are fully certified and have more education• Have more preparation in literature-based strategies for

teaching reading and in integrated reading and writing strategies

• Use literature-based approaches that integrate reading and writing

• Use multiple texts including trade books, magazines, & newspapers, not reading kits or workbooks

• Assess reading through extended writing, not multiple choice tests

Outcomes of High-Stakes Testing Reforms

(Ga, NY, TX, FL, SC, Chicago, LA)

• Larger numbers of students retained in grade, identified for special education

• Lower achievement and higher dropout rates for retained students

• Higher fail rates for learning disabled students

• More students pushed out to raise scores

• Teachers leaving low-ranked schools

Many state and local reforms contravene professional standards on testing

“Scores from large-scale assessments should never be the only sources of information used to make a promotion or retention decision… Test scores should always be used in combination with other sources of information about student achievement.” (National Research Council report on testing, 1999)

Test-based accountability in Georgia & Atlanta

• “Policymakers and educators simply ignored a large body of research showing that (the reforms) would not produce academic gains & would increase dropout rates. The costs were borne by at-risk students. The damage was psychological as well as educational, increasing the likelihood that at-risk students would drop out before receiving their diplomas; school districts were also hurt by the diversion of resources to repetitive years of education for many students.” (Orfield & Ashkinaze, 1991).

High-Stakes for Schools Results in Unintended Consequences

“Student selection provides the greatest leverage in the short-term accountability game…. The easiest way to improve one’s chances of winning is (1) to add some highly likely students and (2) to drop some unlikely students, while simply hanging on to those in the middle. School admissions is a central thread in the accountability fabric.” (Smith, et al., 1986, studying NY City).

Rewards or Sanctions?

1998

100

90

80

70

60

20

Ave. Score = 70

1999

90

80

70

65

55

Ave. Score = 72

Effects on Graduation Rates • Graduation rates in Texas for 9th graders 4 years

later are <70% for whites and <50% for African American and Latino students. Dropouts have also increased in 8th grade.

• 4-year graduation rates are down to 62% in New York State and <50% in New York City.

• Dropout rates have recently increased in Massachusetts, Virginia, and Florida with new high-stakes tests

• U.S. graduation rates have dropped for the first time in a century.

Chicago, LA, NY, Atlanta, GA, TX results tell a common story

“Retained students did not do better than previously socially promoted students…. Over 2 years between the end of 2nd grade through 3rd grade, the average ITBS scores of these students increased only 1.2 GE’s compared to 1.5 GE’s for students with similar test scores who had been promoted prior to the policy. Also troubling is that one-year dropout rates among 8th graders are higher under this policy. In short, Chicago, has not solved the problem of poor performance….” (Roderick, Bryk, et al, 1999)

What is not Addressed?

• “The administration (in Chicago) has worked to raise test scores among low-performing students without having to address questions regarding the adequacy of instruction during the school day or spend resources to increase teachers’ capacity to teach and to meet students’ needs more successfully.” (Roderick, Bryk, et al.)

Student Achievement In Reading, 1994-1998

222

232

215 215

195

200

205

210

215

220

225

230

235

CT

S

US Average

California

The Connecticut CaseOver 15 years Connecticut• Increased and equalized salaries • Raised licensing standards & eliminated emergency

credentialing• Subsidized and improved preparation• Ensured special needs preparation and literacy/ language

training for all teachers• Provided trained mentors & high quality assessment for all

new teachers • Invested in intensive content-based professional

development w/coaching, e.g. Reading Recovery, Math and Science Institutes, Writing Project

•

Other Connecticut Factors

• High information, performance-based, low-stakes assessments to inform practice

• Categorical aid to low-income school districts for preschool ed., school reform, and professional development

• Redesigned schools• Overhaul of administrator licensing and

preparation with focus on instructional leadership and school reform

How to Ensure Competent Teaching for Every Child

• Adopt and align standards for preparation, licensing, and certification using the NCATE, INTASC, NBPTS framework

• Incorporate CEC standards in this quality assurance system

• Fund service scholarships for teachers who train in special education and enter teaching

• Create incentives for colleges to expand and improve teacher education for special educators – Use the Health Professions Education Assistance Act as a model

How to Ensure Competent Teaching for Every Child

• Create standards and incentives for colleges and school districts to better prepare ALL teachers for teaching special needs students

• End the practice of allowing special needs students to be taught by untrained teachers or aides

• Create models of service delivery for special education that “push in” expertise for teachers and students, minimize paperwork, and maximize the opportunity for students to spend continuous, sustained instructional time with teachers who know how to support their learning.

How to ensure genuine accountability for teaching and learning:

• Upgrade teaching standards & supports to assure highly competent teachers for all students

• Use standards for student learning & diverse performance assessments to guide professional development, curriculum reform, & resource allocations, not to punish children

• Overhaul assessments to expand modalities of performance, eliminate time limits, and include classroom-based evidence.

• Encourage the design of schools and classroom structures that allow long-term relationships and in-depth learning