This report details our visits in 19 vibrant communities and 47 impressive classrooms across Minnesota. We hope the proof points that educators and community leaders shared will inspire fellow teachers, administrators, community leaders -- and policymakers -- in classrooms and at the capitol. It's critical to learn from and collaborate with Minnesotans working to make great public schools available to all kids.
August 1970
Geographic Focus: North America-United States (Midwestern)-Minnesota
This project arose from a simple premise. Despite what many -- including, at times, the states themselves -- have argued, state governments have the strongest impact on the work of America's more than three and a half million public school teachers. With that as our framework, the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) began in 2007 what has become an annual 360-degree analysis and encyclopedic presentation of every policy states have on their books that affects the quality of teachers, specifically state efforts to shape teacher preparation, licensing, evaluation and compensation. Our goal has been to provide research-based, practical, cost-neutral recommendations to states on the best ways to improve the teaching profession in their states.
August 1970
Geographic Focus: North America-United States
This report examines the country's most prestigious liberal arts colleges. Despite endowments soaring as high as $1.8 billion, nearly all institutions increased tuition during the Great Recession to finance bloated administrative spending, with many college presidents enjoying salaries higher than Barack Obama's. This report peels back reputation to find out what students are really getting for their diploma's $240,000 price tag
August 1970
Geographic Focus: North America / United States
Education and Literacy, Employment and Labor
According to this issue brief, to improve the feedback new teachers receive districts must rethink feedback as a complex system of many parts, rather than simply a series of isolated conversations between principals and teachers. This paper is designed to guide districts through this process, helping them recognize the interconnected factors at the district, school, and classroom level that shape the nature of feedback.
August 1970
Geographic Focus: North America-United States (Midwestern)-Ohio, North America-United States (Northeastern)-Delaware, North America-United States (Southern)-Tennessee
Too many students in Chicago Public Schools are performing below -- often far below -- grade level. Ideally, all students should be increasing their subject matter knowledge and critical thinking skills over time. In September 2008 a three-year initiative, the Partnership for Instructional Leadership, was created to help a group of neighborhood elementary schools in Chicago Public Schools Area 4, on the city's Northwest Side, build the internal capacity to improve school achievement for all students at all grade levels, including Pre-K and English Language Learners.**Over the course of three years, the Partnership was implemented in 11 elementary schools�six for the full three years with five more schools joining in the third year. This report summarized significant outcomes and learnings from the Partnership experience.
August 1970
Geographic Focus: North America-United States (Midwestern)-Illinois-Cook County-Chicago
Principals are key to improving teaching and learning in schools, but how can school district central offices give principals the support they need? Three tools designed by education researchers at the University of Washington are meant to help. Two focus on the redesign of central offices in ways that foster effective leadership in schools. The last is an aid for principal supervisors seeking to develop the instructional capabilities of the principals they oversee.
August 1970
Geographic Focus: North America / United States
Education and Literacy, Employment and Labor
The National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) has long advocated that any meaningful understanding of "effective" teaching must be rooted in results for kids. Whatever else they accomplish in the classroom, effective teachers improve student achievement. It seems like commonsense. Yet, until recently, it has been an exceptional way of thinking about teacher quality, totally out of step with teacher policy across the states.
As part of the annual State Teacher Policy Yearbook, NCTQ has systematically collected and analyzed state policies on teacher preparation, training, retention, compensation and other personnel policies. In this paper we provide:
1. A detailed and up-to-date lay of the land on teacher evaluation policies across the 50 states and the District of Columbia Public Schools;
2. An in-depth look at policy in states promising ambitious teacher evaluation systems (states requiring student growth and achievement to be a significant or the most significant factor in teacher ratings), including states' efforts to "connect the dots" and use teacher evaluation results in meaningful ways to inform policy and practice;
3. A compilation of some of the important lessons learned, pitfalls and successes states have experienced on the road to improving teacher evaluation systems.
August 1970
Geographic Focus: North America-United States
Children and Youth;Education and Literacy
In June 2013, the New York State Education Department (NYSED) announced a new teacher evaluation system for New York City, which is being enacted citywide in the 2013-14 school year. The implementation of a new system for evaluating the 75,000 teachers who work in New York City's public schools is a massive undertaking -- one that will change how principals use their time, how teachers direct their efforts in the classroom, and, ultimately, how students experience school. State Education Commissioner John King has said, "These evaluation plans will help principals and teachers improve their practice, and that in turn will help students graduate from high school ready for college and careers. That's our goal in everything we do."
As the intended beneficiaries of this major reform effort, students and their families have an enormous stake in its success. This paper makes the case that the New York City Department of Education (DOE) must include them in the policy implementation process.
Students and parents should have the opportunity to actively contribute to the policy changes that affect their lives; reforms are more likely to be successful, sustainable, and responsive to local needs when students and families are engaged as partners and supportive of such efforts. As theNational Parent Teacher Association (PTA) notes, "Because parents, teachers, students, and the general public are affected by school policy, it is appropriate that they participate in its determination. We believe that such sharing of responsibility will result in greater responsiveness to student and societal needs and therefore improve the quality of educational opportunity."
The voices of actual New York City public school parents and students echo this desire for participation with respect to teacher evaluation policy. One New York City high school student told us, "Since the students are the ones subjected to changes in the system (as well as the teachers) they should be allowed to have a say in what they think will benefit/hurt them. They should be able to say what they think makes their teachers effective/ineffective, and what can be done to fix any problems with the new policy."
Similarly, Diana M., the parent of an eleventh grader in Queens, affirmed, "We have a voice, we have many concerns and as parents should be included in these new policies that are taking place....Students as well parents have ideas and we can change the school system for the better [for] students, the DOE and the parents alike....The change starts with all three parties, parent, student and educator!"
With this paper, we are calling on the DOE to include students and parents when putting the new evaluation system into practice by establishing a stakeholder advisory group to provide feedback throughout the implementation process and ensure open discussion and sharing of responsibility take place. We begin by setting forth the arguments for including parents and students in the implementation of the new policies and conclude by providing examples of structures established for this purpose in other cities and states.
August 1970
Geographic Focus: North America / United States (New York Metropolitan Area)
