Improving Teacher and Principal Quality
- Option: Programs to Recruit and Retain Highly
Qualified Teachers
- Essential Element:
- Develop and implement recruitment strategies and retention incentives for prekindergarten through grade twelve.
- Essential Element:
- Option: Professional Mentoring
Programs for Beginning Teachers and Principals
- Essential Elements:
- For teachers, such mentoring must be consistent with the guidelines and requirements of NYSED mentor teacher programs.
- Limit to teachers and principals in their first and second years of a new assignment.
- Essential Elements:
- Option: Incentive Programs
- Essential Elements:
- Create incentive programs to encourage highly qualified teachers to work in low performing schools.
- May not use funds for school- or district-wide salary enhancements or raises.
- Essential Elements:
- Option: Instructional Coaches for
Teachers
- Essential Elements:
- Instructional coaches shall provide individualized professional development to assist teachers in becoming more effective in their classroom instruction.
- Ensure that instructional coaches are highly qualified.
- Essential Elements:
- Option: School Leadership Coaches
for Principals
- Essential Elements:
- School leadership coaches will provide individualized professional development to assist principals to become more effective instructional leaders.
- Ensure that leadership coaches are appropriately certified as school district, school building and/or school district building leaders and have demonstrated success as such.
- Essential Elements:
Moreover, all programs and activities under the option of improving teacher and principal quality shall:
- Facilitate student attainment of the NYS learning standards.
- Predominantly benefit students with the greatest educational needs including, but not limited to: those students with limited English proficiency and students who are English language learners, students in poverty and students with disabilities.
- Predominantly benefit those students in schools identified as requiring academic progress or in need of improvement or in corrective action or restructuring.
- Be developed in reference to practices supported by research or other comparable evidence as to their effectiveness in raising achievement.
- Be accompanied by high quality, sustained professional development focused on content pedagogy, curriculum development and/or instructional design to ensure successful implementation of each program and activity.
- Be consistent with federal mandates, state law, and regulations governing the education of such students.
- Be used to supplement, and not supplant, funds allocated by the district in the base year for such purposes.
Research Studies, Research Reviews and Other Best Evidence:
- Darling-Hammond, L. (2000). Teacher Quality and Student Achievement:
A Review of State Policy Evidence: http://epaa.asu.edu/epaa/v8n1/.
Using data from a 50-state survey of policies, state case study analyses, the 1993-94 Schools and Staffing Surveys (SASS), and the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), this study examines the ways in which teacher qualifications and other school inputs are related to student achievement across states.
- Rice, J.K. Teacher Quality: Understanding the Effectiveness
of Teacher Attributes. Economic Policy Institute (EPI): http://www.epinet.org/books/teacher_quality_exec_summary.pdf.
(77.4KB)
This analysis reviews a wide range of empirical studies that examine the impact of teacher characteristics on teacher effectiveness in order to draw conclusions about the extent to which these characteristics are, in fact, linked with teacher performance.
- Sanders, W.L., & Rivers, J.C. (1996) Cumulative and Residual Effects of Teachers on Future Student Academic Achievement. Knoxville: University of Tennessee.
- Rothman, R. (2004). Landing the Highly Qualified Teacher: How
administrators can hire-and keep-the best: http://www.edletter.org/past/issues/2004-jf/hiring.shtml.
The article notes that studies conducted in Tennessee, Dallas, and elsewhere have shown that good teachers can improve student achievement by as much as an extra grade level over the course of a year. Moreover, it states that the effects of teacher quality are cumulative. Researchers from the Dallas Independent School District found that students assigned for three years in a row to effective teachers-those whose students gained in achievement more than would be expected by past performance-went from the 59th percentile in the 4th grade to the 76th percentile in the 6th.
- The Education Trust. (2004). The Real Value of Teachers: Using
New Information About Teacher Effectiveness to Close the Achievement
Gap,
The analysis takes an in-depth look at existing data on teacher quality and lays out a policy agenda aimed at closing the achievement gap.
- The Southeast Center for Teaching Quality, released a policy brief in 2005, “Recruiting and Retaining National Board Certified Teachers for Hard-to-Staff, Low-Performing Schools.” The center also maintains a list of important policies and practices related to teacher quality.
- The National Center for Education Statistics provides a list of pay-for-performance plans proposed by states in 2005. A listing of proposed incentive pay plans is also available. “Improving Teacher Quality” is just one part of the Bush administration’s education legislation, the No Child Left Behind Act.
- The National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality (NCCTQ), funded
by the U.S. Department of Education, provides an array of resources and
research related to improving teaching quality, with a focus on high-poverty,
low-performing, and hard-to-staff schools. http://ncctq.org/
- Alternative School Administration Study: The purpose of this
study was to determine how principals spend their time and to
test a new structure using business management trained staff
(‘school administrative managers’) to increase principal
time spent on academic achievement and gap closure.
http://eric.ed.gov/
Title II Reports on the Quality of Teacher Preparation:
- The Secretary’s Fifth Annual Report on Teacher Quality:
A Highly Qualified Teacher in Every Classroom: http://www.ed.gov/about/reports/annual/teachprep/index.html.
The previous annual reports are provided here, including supplemental tables.
- https://www.title2.org/View.asp
Individual State reports for the current and previous years may be accessed by following the links to the left.
- The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards:
http://www.nbpts.org/
Great schools begin with great teachers. At the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS), we believe that quality teaching is the key to improved student achievement. NBPTS makes available research publications related to teacher quality. Recently published findings include a study conducted by Appalachian State University and another by the SAS Institute comparing student achievement between Board Certified and non-certified teachers.
Federal Legislation/Regulation:
ELEMENTARY & SECONDARY EDUCATION Title II — Preparing, Training, and Recruiting High Quality Teachers and Principals SEC. 201
TEACHER AND PRINCIPAL TRAINING AND RECRUITING FUND:
http://www.ed.gov/policy/elsec/leg/esea02/pg20.html
Improving Teacher Quality – Highly Qualified Teachers:
http://www.ed.gov/teachers/nclbguide/improve-quality.html
Teacher Quality Enhancement Grants:
http://www.ed.gov/programs/heatqp/index.html
Teacher Incentive Fund:
http://www.ed.gov/programs/teacherincentive/index.html
Transition to Teaching:
http://www.ed.gov/programs/transitionteach/index.html
Highly Qualified Teachers:
http://www.ed.gov/nclb/methods/teachers/stateplanfacts.html
Teacher Quality Enhancement:
http://www.ed.gov/programs/heatqp/resources.html
National Center for Alternative Certification:
http://www.teach-now.org/frm2004TableofContents.asp
National Council on Teacher Quality:
http://www.nctq.org/nctq/
New York State Education Law: New York State Regulations
Field memos from Deputy Commissioner Johanna Duncan-Poitier on New York
State’s Implementation of the Requirements for Teacher and Paraprofessionals
in the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) and the Individuals with
Disabilities Education Act of 2004 (IDEA), which also address teacher quality
initiatives:
http://www.highered.nysed.gov/nclbhome.htm
Commissioner’s Regulations on professional development:
https://www.p12.nysed.gov/part100/pages/1002h.html#Go%20to%20top%20of%201002h%20General%20School%20Requirements
Elementary and Secondary Education Act Title I, Improving the Academic
Achievement of the Disadvantaged, Part A, Improving Basic Programs Operated
by Local Educational Agencies, Section 1119
http://www.ed.gov/policy/elsec/leg/esea02/pg2.html#sec1119
Definitions of HQT and professional development:
Elementary and Secondary Education Act, Title IX, General Provisions
Section 9101 (23) and (34) http://www.ed.gov/policy/elsec/leg/esea02/pg107.html#sec9101
Guidance documents: http://www.ed.gov/teachers/nclbguide/imporve-quality.html
Commissioner’s Regulations Part 100.2 (o) Annual Professional Performance
Review and 100.2 (dd) Professional Development Plan:
https://www.p12.nysed.gov/part100/
HQT guidance from SED:
http://www.highered.nysed.gov/nclbhome.htm
Supplement not supplant: Funds must be used to supplement, and not supplant, any Federal, State or local educational funds that would otherwise be used for these activities.
New York State Education Department Guidance Materials:
Mentoring:
http://www.highered.nysed.gov/tcert/resteachers/teacherinduction.htm
Professional Development Requirements:
http://www.highered.nysed.gov/tcert/resteachers/175.htm