Writing for The 74, Bekah McNeel explores what districts can do to better support teachers of color. Excerpts from the piece appear below: Right now, around 80 percent of the teaching workforce is white, compared with 48 percent of public school students in the U.S. Research has shown the various ways this racial imbalance hurts Read more about How Districts Can Better Support Teachers of Color[…]
Improving diversity among educators is one way to alleviate some of the persistent and systemic racial disparities in academic achievement and student discipline. But about 80% of the educator workforce is white, while more than half of the nation’s K-12 population is racially and ethnically diverse. A new Education Commision of the States report shows Read more about Building a Diverse Teacher Workforce[…]
Addressing shortages in a state’s teacher labor market can present unique challenges and requires access to comprehensive data and an understanding of available policy levers. To support informed policy, the Education Commission of the States has compiled a national comparison of state policies related to teacher recruitment and retention, with a focus on shortages in Read more about 50-State Comparison: Teacher Recruitment and Retention[…]
A new Baccalaureate and Beyond study of the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) examines 29,000 US students who earned a bachelor’s degree in 2015-16. Of those students, 41% had considered teaching as a career in college, but less than 17% actually ended up in a classroom. Results vary by college major, with business, health Read more about Of those who consider teaching, who actually end up in the classroom?[…]
Writing for Education Next, authors Michael Q. McShane and Andy Smarick explore the challenges facing rural education as well as recommendations for a path forward. Excerpts of their piece appear below: A consistent criticism of education reform is that much of the agenda has been based on what some call a “deficit mindset.” That is, Read more about To Improve Rural Schools, Focus on their Strengths[…]
Diverse, learner-ready teachers in the classroom means students have access to the instruction and learning needed to meet education goals. But the reality is that too many students are without these teachers State and district leaders can change that by using data to make informed policy decisions that strengthen their teacher pipelines. Data Quality Campaign’s Read more about How State and Local Leaders Can Strengthen Teacher Pipelines[…]
Recently in The 74, Kate Walsh wrote about the power of school districts to fix their own teacher pipeline, including the portion of the pipeline coming from traditional teacher preparation programs. Excerpts from the piece appear below: A growing number of school districts are embracing the teacher residency model as a solution to their shortage Read more about District Power to Fix the Student Teacher Pipeline[…]
Most states have been struggling to address teacher shortages for several years now, often filling the vacuum with underprepared teachers who aren’t able to give children the high-quality learning they need and who leave at two to three times the rate of well-prepared teachers. Most often, these teachers are hired in schools serving students of Read more about State Efforts to Solve Teacher Shortages by Strengthening the Profession[…]
Michael Hansen and Diana Quintero, writing in a Teacher Diversity in America series for the Brown Center on Education Policy, recently explored the distribution of teachers of color and find that teachers in the US are even more segregated than students. As we know, an increasing amount of evidence shows that alignment in the racial Read more about Teachers in the US Are Even More Segregated than Students[…]
Many public school districts are in the midst of voluntary summer learning programs, especially for children from low-income families. But program availability does not always translate to consistent student attendance. A new recruitment guide on how to market summer learning to parents and students offers guidance and detailed templates that districts and others can use Read more about Recruiting Students for Voluntary Summer Learning Programs[…]
District of Columbia Public Schools has been a source of some sensational headlines over the past decade, from an on-camera firing of a school principal to recent revelations of watered-down diplomas. But the school district arguably has done more to modernize public school teaching than any other in the nation. It is powerful work, yielding Read more about A Policymaker’s Playbook for Transforming Teaching[…]
Recently in the Hechinger Report, former Education Secretary John B. King, Jr. and Linda Darling-Hammond, president of the Learning Policy Institute wrote an op-ed recommending several actions that can be taken at the school, district, state and college levels to better support teachers of color. Excerpts from the piece appear below: Qualitative research from The Read more about Supporting our Teachers of Color[…]
It is often difficult for school and district leadership to identify high-quality teachers who will remain in the classroom, especially among those who are just entering the profession and in the first years of employment. However, a recent study by Robert Vagi, Margarita Pivovarova and Wendy Miedel Barnard suggests that examining a prospective teacher’s instructional Read more about What does pre-service teacher quality tell us about entry and retention in the profession?[…]
The Education Commission of the States is out with policy snapshots of enacted state legislation related to teachers. Each snapshot covers all teacher legislation in 2017 as well as select 2018 introduced legislation and details various state approaches to attracting and retaining a high-quality teacher workforce. Access the snapshots at the following links: Teacher Evaluations: Read more about State Education Policy Tracking[…]
The National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) has released its Teacher Shortages and Surpluses Databurst, an analysis of states’ work to track teacher shortages and surpluses, and to implement policy solutions to address these challenges. This resource includes an overview of promising practices currently being implemented, a snapshot of all 50 states’ and the District Read more about NCTQ Releases Analysis of States’ Efforts to Address Teacher Shortages and Surpluses[…]
Michael Hartney and Michael Jones recently published a study in Public Administration Review that explores the ability of pay-for-performance salary structures to bring stronger teachers into the classroom. The study, titled “Show WHO the money? Teaching Sorting Practices and Performance Pay across U.S. School Districts” uses data from two waves of the Schools and Staffing Read more about Performance Pay can Bring Stronger Teachers into the Classroom[…]