The Progress of Education Reform: Teacher Leaders PDF - This issue of The Progress of Education Reform discusses the roles teacher leaders can play; how they can contribute to overall school and student success; how some states are formally supporting teacher leaders and the concept of teacher leadership; and policy implications and recommendations for state policymakers on how to explore and/or expand teacher leadership in their states....

Teacher Salaries and Benefits 2003--08 MS Word PDF - This ECS StateNote examines National Center for Education Statistics figures on salary and benefit statistics for the 50 states and the District of Columbia. (Stephanie Rose, Education Commission of the States, May 2010)...

Teaching Quality: How prevalent are research-based practices in the classroom? - Access related research titles from the ECS Research Studies Database. Links embedded in titles will take you to each study's major findings and recommendations....

The Progress of Education Reform: Evaluating Teacher Effectiveness PDF - This issue highlights recent research that attempts to explore the relationship between traditionally accepted measures of teacher quality – teacher certification and in-class performance – and teacher effectiveness as assessed through student academic performance. It also includes links to additional resources on teacher quality and teacher evaluation methods.(Tricia Coulter, Education Commission of the States, October 2007)...

Teacher Quality 2.0: From Teacher Education to Student Progress: Teacher Quality Since NCLB - This first paper in a series on teaching quality provides an overview of the last decade’s research and policy innovations that reframed thinking on objective measures to evaluate a teacher’s classroom accomplishments and shortfalls. While no consensus has emerged yet about how to improve teacher quality, the paper notes that policymakers continue to experiment with many levers, including teacher preparation programs, recruitment incentives, tenure provisions, and differential pay, to achieve the highest-quality teacher workforce. (American Enterprise Institute, August 2012)...

Preparing Teachers and Developing School Leaders for the 21st Century: Lessons from Around the World - This publication evaluates education systems around the world, identifies the best ways to improve the quality of teaching, provides available research about what can make educational reforms effective, and highlights examples of reforms that have produced specific results, show promise, or illustrate imaginative ways of implementing change. (OECD, March 2012)...

Primary Sources: 2012 America’s Teachers on the Teaching Profession - In this edition of “Primary Sources,” the authors asked more than 10,000 teachers about their schools and classrooms, about student and teacher performance and about the ways it should be evaluated, supported and rewarded. The report delves into the everyday experience of teaching in today’s schools, and reflects the diversity of opinion and practice in the teaching profession. The data reflects responses from educators in every state and at every grade level, and from those teaching students of all income levels and of all learning abilities. (Scholastic and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, March 2012)...

2011 State Teacher Policy Yearbook - In this fifth edition of the State Teacher Policy Yearbook, NCTQ provides a detailed examination of state laws, rules and regulations that govern the teaching profession, covering the full breadth of policies including teacher preparation, licensure, evaluation, career advancement, tenure, compensation, pensions and dismissal. (National Center on Teaching Quality, Jan 2012) ...

Building a High-Quality Teaching Profession: Lessons from Around the World - This OECD report draws on the organization’s international research on principles, practices, and innovations in teaching. (OECD, June 2011)...

Workplaces That Support High-Performing Teaching and Learning: Insights From Generation Y Teachers - The study provides insights into the attitudes of Generation Y teachers – those born between 1977 and 1995 – as well as the implications for school policy and practice. (American Federation of Teachers and American Institutes for Research, April 2011)...

Making Preschool More Productive: How Classroom Management Training Can Help Teachers - This evaluation of Foundations for Learning found that teachers who were randomly assigned to participate in the program improved the emotional climate of their classrooms and were better able to manage children'’s behavioral challenges. These teachers were also able to increase the amount of instruction time, and their students had fewer conflicts with adults or peers and were more engaged. The researchers also found that the impact on teacher practice persisted into the following year, after the intervention ceased. In contrast, however, the study did not find any lasting impact on children's behaviors during the kindergarten year. (MDRC, November 2010)...

Selected Table from the School and Staffing Survey - Table 7,Percentage distribution of public school districts, by specific agreements with teachers' associations or unions and state: 2007-08. Table indicates, state by state, the percentage of school districts with collective bargaining agreements, meet-and-confer agreements and no specific agreements. Collective bargaining agreements are legally-binding agreements. Meet-and-confer discussions are for the purpose of reaching non-legally-binding agreements. (NCES, July 2010)...

Devil in the Details: An Analysis of State Teacher Dismissal Laws - The push for dismissal reform comes as districts across the country focus on improving human capital systems. Districts recognize that an inability to dismiss poor-performing teachers undermines efforts to ensure that every student is taught by a highly effective instructor. As districts begin implementing more effective evaluation systems that better identify both low- and high-performing teachers, changes will have to be made to dismissal processes to exit those teachers in a fair and efficient manner. (Saba Bireda, Center for American Progress, June 2010)...

Opportunity at the Top: How America's Best Teachers Could Close the Gaps, Raise the Bar, and Keep Our Nation Great - Approximately 64,000 top teachers leave teaching annually, and the best teachers who stay reach no more children than the very worst teachers. If we were to leverage the efforts of our high-performing teachers, retain them through support and encouragement and extend our reach by bold recruiting and dismissal, 87% of classes could be taught by gap-closing, bar-raising teachers, in a mere half-decade. (Bryan Hassel and Emily Hassel, Public Impact, June 2010)...

Governmental and Official Immunity for School Districts and Their Employees: Alive and Well? PDF - This study examines state statutes and major case law applicable to governmental and official immunity of school districts and their employees to negligence liability. Providing the only current, comprehensive, and coherent framework specific to this significant subject, two tables present the applicable features of these two levels of immunity through entries representing various exceptions to each state’s general rule of immunity or liability. The results contradict both the prevailing literature and popular perceptions, showing that both governmental immunity for public school districts and official immunity for public school employees continue to flourish, albeit in a variegated pattern. (Kansas Journal of Law & Public Policy, Peter Maher†, Kelly Price and Perry Zirkel 2010)...

Taking Human Capital Seriously: Talented Teachers in Every Classroom, Talented Principals in Every School - Recommendations for improving the quality of principals and teachers. (Strategic Management of Human Capital, November 2009)...

Improving Teacher Quality and Distribution - Experiments with teacher recruitment programs should continue at all levels, but data should be collected so promising practices can be improved and those that aren’t working can be ended. However new teachers get into the profession, the crucial question is how to keep them there. States and the federal government should continue to fund research on which factors increase teacher retention, including salary incentives, improved working conditions and school culture, mentoring and professional development. (National Academy of Education, November 2008)...

Improving the Skills and Knowledge of the High School Teachers We Already Have PDF - While numerous state efforts seek to recruit, train and retain more teachers, fewer initiatives focus on developing teachers, particlarly high school teachers, once they enter the classroom. This policy brief examines seven high-leverage components to strengthen teacher professional development at the high school level and provides state policy suggestions for each. (Jennifer Dounay and Kathy Christie, Education Commission of the States, October 2008)...

Teaching Quality in a Changing Policy Landscape: Improvements in the Teacher Pool - Recent years have seen a high level of education policy activity focused on issues of teacher quality. Policies have been developed at federal, state and institutional levels, and include increased institutional reporting of teacher candidates’ test scores, the mandate for Highly Qualified Teachers under NCLB, more stringent requirements for entry into and accreditation of teacher education programs and the rapid expansion of alternate pathways into teaching. To determine whether these policies were accompanied by changes in the academic quality of prospective teachers, this study focuses on Praxis candidates from the years 2002 through 2005, and compares this cohort with an earlier cohort of prospective teachers (1994 to 1997) included in an earlier ETS study. (ETS, December 2007)...

A Possible Dream: Retaining California Teachers So All Students Learn - Twenty-two percent of California teachers leave the profession after their first four years in the classroom. Additionally, 10% transfer away from high poverty schools each year. The state spends more than $455 million each year to recruit, hire and prepare replacement teachers. This report offers recommendations to increase teacher retention, including: (1) assess teaching conditions locally and continuously; (2) elevate California’s student funding to (at least) adequate levels; (3) resolve the bureaucratic conundrum (not all bureaucracies are bad); (4) refocus school leadership on instructional quality and high-quality teaching and learning conditions; (5) establish statewide standards for school teaching and learning conditions; and (6) assess and address specific challenges in retention of special educations teachers. (Center for Teacher Quality at California State Sacramento, April 2007) ...

Finding the Teachers We Need - Even those who approach the teacher quality challenge from very different directions agree that there is a need to do something radically different to attract and retain quality teachers, particularly in high-poverty schools and key academic areas. This paper summarizes the contents of the authors’ recent book, A Qualified Teacher in Every Classroom? Appraising Old Answers and New Ideas, which offers a comprehensive look at the teacher quality debate. The paper includes sections on: (1) an overview of the teacher quality debate; (2) alternative certification; (3) the ambiguous nature of current evidence; (4) samples of relevant research; (5) next steps for informing policy; and (6) new directions for policy. (Frederick M. Hess, Andrew J. Rotherham and Kate Walsh, WestEd, 2005)...