Improve Teacher Quality
Recruit, Train, and Reward Effective Teachers for All Our Children
Teachers are the single most important element in fostering student achievement. Recent research shows that teacher quality is critical to how much students learn from year to year. A Tennessee study found that students placed with effective teachers three years in a row performed 50 points better on a 100-point scale than their counterparts placed with three ineffective teachers. Every public school student in America should be taught by highly qualified, well-trained and adequately supported teachers. Nowhere is this need greater than in high-poverty, high-minority schools. The Center for American Progress proposes that the federal government promote state and local steps to recruit, retain, and reward a high quality teacher workforce.
The Plan:
1. Encourage the treatment of teachers as professionals: The federal government should support experiments in the development of enriched career advancement structures that reflect the best practices in other fields. Elements of a restructured teacher compensation system should include: raising starting salaries to recruit well-prepared new teachers; basing a proportion of pay on teacher skills and knowledge and on teacher success in increasing student achievement; and providing incentive pay to work in challenging schools or to teach subjects with serious teacher shortages. Reform of teacher pay is difficult, but it is essential so that the teaching profession can attract and retain America’s most talented young people.
2. Ensure that all education funds are distributed based on student need, beginning with the reform of a Title I provision accounting for teachers. Most school districts make budgetary decisions that provide less money, not more, for low-performing and high-poverty schools. This often happens when districts allocate money among schools as if all teachers made the same salary, even though better-paid teachers, usually those with more years of experience or advanced university credits, are much more likely to be teaching in relatively more affluent neighborhoods. On top of this, the federal government’s current Title I “comparability” requirement (i.e., the equitable distribution of state and local funds before Title I funds are added on top) exempts teacher salary differentials based on years of employment. The federal “comparability” loophole needs to be closed by accounting for all teacher differences in pay. The federal government should reward states and districts that switch to weighted pupil allocation systems based on student needs—systems that account for actual teacher pay. These reforms will give more funding to the districts and schools that need it most.
3. Improve information on the quality of teaching: The federal government should demand better information about the quality of America’s teachers. It should provide extra dollars to states that adopt data systems that longitudinally track student performance linked to their teachers. Use of such data can improve instruction and help rectify inequities in student opportunities for learning.
For more information see Getting Smarter, Becoming Fairer: A Progressive Education Agenda for a Stronger Nation.
The Experts: Cindy Brown, Robert Gordon
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