TEACHING QUALITY is the most important in-school factor for
improving student achievement (see footnote). Yet we, as a
nation, are far from having a caring & competent teacher in
every classroom.
On Monday, the Department put on the web a booklet designed to
help states & communities find ways to overcome obstacles to
better teaching.
"Eliminating Barriers to Improving Teaching" devotes a chapter
to each of 6 challenges: teacher recruitment, preparation,
licensing & certification standards, professional development,
& retention, as well as the development of school leaders.
Each chapter defines barriers to that challenge, suggests ways
around each barrier, & mentions an existing effort to address
that barrier.
Below is the first chapter, "Recruitment of Quality Teachers."
The full text of the booklet is at
http://www.ed.gov/inits/teachers/barriers2000/Barriers2000.doc
http://www.ed.gov/inits/teachers/barriers2000/Barriers2000.pdf
Footnote: Greenwalls, S., Hedges, L.V., and Laine, P.D.
"The Effect of School Resources on Student Achievement,"
*Review of Education Research* (1996, Fall).
=================================================================
"Recruitment of Quality Teachers," from "Eliminating Barriers to
Improving Teaching." By Terry Dozier & Candace Bertotti, Teacher
Quality Initiative, U.S. Department of Education, November 2000
=================================================================
Why Is Action So Urgently Needed?
* Enormous Need for More Classroom Teachers. School districts
in the United States need to hire 2.2 million teachers within
the next decade.
* Thousands of Qualified Teachers Choosing Not to Teach. For
example, only 42 percent of 1992-93 college graduates who
prepared to teach applied for a teaching job between 1994 &
1997.
* Acute Shortages of Qualified Teachers in Key Subject Areas.
Of schools with vacancies in certain fields, over 50 percent
found those in the following fields difficult to fill:
special education, English as a second language
(ESL)/bilingual education, foreign language, physical science,
& mathematics.
* Lack of Diversity. Minority students comprise 36 percent of
our nation's student population, but only 13 percent of our
teachers are minorities.
==> BARRIER 1: LACK OF INCENTIVES TO TEACH
* Low salaries
* Noncompetitive benefits as compared with other fields
* Lack of portability of credentials, pensions, & credited
years of experience
PROMISING ALTERNATIVES
* Create additional opportunities for pay increases based
on knowledge, performance, & skills.
* Offer higher salaries to those with dual certification
who agree to teach both fields if at least one is a high-
need subject area.
* Consider raising salaries by making teaching a year-round
profession.
* Offer student loan forgiveness, relocation benefits,
signing bonuses, and/or tax incentives.
* Permit the hiring of retired teachers in critical
shortage areas -- allowing retired teachers to maintain
full retirement benefits, while also earning a full
salary.
EXAMPLES ------------------------------------------------------
In 1986, Connecticut made an investment of more than $300
million in raising standards for teacher education & licensing
while increasing teacher salaries to the highest in the
nation. As a result of this foresight, teacher shortages have
been eliminated across the state, even in the cities.
Several states, such as Kentucky, South Carolina, & Tennessee,
have enacted legislation to allow retired teachers to be
rehired in critical shortage areas while maintaining their
full retirement benefits.
When Gwinnett County schools, a district of metropolitan
Atlanta, observed many teacher applicants turning down job
offers, they decided to survey area principals & find out why.
Survey results found 90 instances where applicants refused
interviews or job offers because of the county's policy giving
veteran teachers half credit on the pay scale for their years
of classroom experience. As a result, Gwinnett County changed
its policy & now gives full credit for years of experience on
the salary schedule.
Cincinnati public schools, in collaboration with the teachers'
union, ratified plans to change their traditional pay schedule
to one based on classroom performance. Teachers advance up a
four-step career ladder by meeting district goals. In
addition to undergoing comprehensive reviews, teachers must
submit portfolios that include logs of parent contacts, sample
lesson plans & student work, & a list of professional
development activities.
--------------------------------------------------------------
==> Barrier 2: LOW STANDARDS THAT CONTRIBUTE TO A LACK OF RESPECT
FOR THE PROFESSION
* Lack of rigor in many teacher preparation programs
* Lack of a set of standard qualifications for entering the
profession that are based on the ability to teach
PROMISING ALTERNATIVES
* Create demanding & challenging curriculum that shows
evidence of producing quality teachers.
* Develop rigorous, performance-based assessments to
license teachers based on the content knowledge &
teaching skills teachers need to be effective, & enforce
strictly.
EXAMPLE --------------------------------------------------------
The Mid-Atlantic Regional Teacher Project -- an alliance among
Maryland, the District of Columbia, New Jersey, Pennsylvania,
& Delaware -- raised the ceiling on teacher quality by
recommending to state policymakers a core set of assessments
for high-performing education graduates, setting optional
higher cut scores for designation as a Meritorious New
Teacher, & granting Meritorious New Teachers full reciprocity
of credentials among states & regions. Meritorious New
Teachers may also be eligible for higher starting salaries.
-------------------------------------------------------------
==> Barrier 3: BUREAUCRATIC PRACTICES
* Late budget decisions
* Hiring & personnel practices that
> unnecessarily delay notices of job openings;
> fail to generate timely responses to inquiries from
potential applicants;
> lose job applications; &
> tolerate disorganized interviewing & candidate
selection.
PROMISING ALTERNATIVES
* Streamline hiring practices. Evaluate budgets & school
needs in late winter in order to recruit the most
talented teachers early.
* Pool regional resources to create an interstate, user-
friendly, web-based hiring process. This system would
post job notifications, perform searches for applicants
with specific qualifications, promptly respond to
requests for information, & track applications.
EXAMPLES -------------------------------------------------------
The New Haven Unified School District in the San Francisco Bay
Area created a computerized applicant-tracking system that can
be searched based on multiple criteria. For example, a
principal could search for a teacher with a special education
credential & 10 years of experience who also can coach women's
basketball. The district also uses video technology to expand
its interviewing capabilities, holding interactive
videoconferences with applicants from around the world.
Recruiting New Teachers Inc. operates the National Teacher
Recruitment Clearinghouse website --
http://www.recruitingteachers.org -- a one-stop source of
information for recruiters, teachers seeking jobs, prospective
teachers, & school districts seeking ways to retain teachers.
--------------------------------------------------------------
==> Barrier 4: INADEQUATE ASSESSMENT OF NEEDS
* Failure to collect the data needed to assess statewide
teacher supply-and-demand needs
* Lack of evaluation of state & local investments in
recruitment
PROMISING ALTERNATIVES
* Develop a statewide comprehensive plan to examine sources
of teachers, rates of attrition, & numbers of teacher
vacancies by district, grade level, & subject area.
Gather information from other states as well; recruitment
strategies may be strengthened by adopting a regional
approach.
* Create a systematic evaluation system that regularly
assesses the effectiveness of state recruitment efforts &
informs future decisions about funding.
EXAMPLE --------------------------------------------------------
In the Public Education Network's Teacher Quality Initiative,
community-based, nonprofit organizations in high-poverty
communities nationwide are collecting data on the
qualifications of teachers in their districts. Data will be
used to engage the public in improving the quality of teaching
available to the most disadvantaged children in their
communities & to spearhead community-based strategic planning
processes to address the disparities between the
qualifications of teachers in high- & low-poverty schools.
-------------------------------------------------------------
==> Barrier 5: LACK OF COMPREHENSIVE STRATEGIES
* Lack of statewide strategies to address teacher shortages
* No focus on special shortage areas
PROMISING ALTERNATIVES
* Fund the education of individuals who go into critical
shortage areas.
* Go beyond level funding & allocate more to schools that
serve poor children. This would enable districts to pay
more to teachers to work in more challenging settings &
reverse the current drain of qualified teachers from
places where they are needed most.
* Invest in people who currently live in high-need
communities; adopt a "grow-your-own" approach to
recruiting new teachers.
EXAMPLE -------------------------------------------------------
Answering Georgia's call for more diversity among teachers,
the Pathways to Teaching Careers partnership among Armstrong
Atlantic State University, Savannah State University, &
Savannah/Chatham County Schools enlists noncertified school
district employees -- paraprofessionals, secretaries,
substitute teachers, bus drivers, cafeteria managers -- who
have exemplary work records, better-than-average-grades, & a
sincere commitment to teaching. These individuals are offered
tuition & other support so they can earn degrees leading to
teacher certification. The program's 60 graduates have a
collective grade point average of 3.0, a 96 percent retention
rate, & 24 have been named Teacher of the Year for their
schools.
------------------------------------------------------------
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Terry Dozier, Candace Bertotti,
Peter Kickbush, & Kirk Winters
U.S. Department of Education
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