Meet our new guest blogger, Anne Luce! For the next few weeks, Anne
will be focusing on recent developments surrounding the Department of
Education’s $4.35 billion Race to the Top fund.
Anne is a graduate student at Seattle University earning a master’s
degree in public administration, with a focus on education. With
experience in both politics and nonprofit organizations, Anne is
focusing her master’s thesis on policies that will improve Washington
states’ schools, student achievement and the state's competitiveness for Race to the Top funds.
Seattle Public Schools Top Ten List: Attracting, Developing and Retaining Effective Teachers
Effective teachers matter. They matter to the school district, to the
school, and, most importantly, to the student. It is difficult to deny
the impact of an effective teacher.
What is constantly up for discussion though is how an effective teacher
is defined, retained, recruited as well as how to develop and attract
effective teachers.
In an effort to identify and address these issues the Seattle
Public Schools, in collaboration with the Alliance for
Education, an independent organization working in conjuncture with
Seattle Public Schools, commissioned the National Council on Teacher
Quality (NCTQ) to analyze Seattle’s teacher policies linked most
directly to teacher effectiveness.
What resulted of this study is the report, “Human Capital in Seattle
Public Schools: Rethinking How to Attract, Develop, and Retain
Effective Teachers” and ten specific policy goals for Seattle Public
Schools to implement that, arguably, will improve teacher quality.
These policy goals and recommendations are challenging but must be put
into action – or at the least seriously considered – by the Seattle
Public Schools. Without doing so teacher quality and student
achievement will continue to be lackluster.
In the “Late Night Show” fashion, here are the top ten effective teaching policy recommendations for Seattle Public Schools…
10. Support for Struggling Teachers;
9. Make Tenure Meaningful;
8. Stronger Teacher Evaluations;
7. Improve Teacher Induction;
6. Keep Teachers in the Classroom;
5. Modify Teacher Schedule;
4. Equitably Distribute Experienced Teachers;
3. Adjust Hiring and Assigning Timeline;
2. Site-Based Teacher Assignment;
1. Refine Teacher Compensation
See details on “Top Ten” by clicking each link.
10. Support for Struggling Teachers
Seattle needs to develop systems that will identify poor-performing
teachers. It is only then that the districts teacher remedial support
program will really be beneficial.
Seattle Public Schools can’t be effective in improving teacher quality
if it is unable to identify poor-performing teachers. Seattle is
currently ineffectively by providing teacher remediation without having
identified what teachers need remediation. This has got to change.
9. Make Tenure Meaningful
Seattle’s tenure policy is weak in terms of it serving as a mechanism
to identify and reward effective teaching. Seattle needs to involve
district officials in tenure decisions, recognize tenured teachers with
significant pay increases, and lengthen teacher provisional period to
three years.
Teacher tenure reform is needed so that it has weight and meaning to
teachers. The tenure design Seattle has doesn’t use tenure as a reward
or incentive. For example, currently 40 states wait at least three
years before tenure is conferred. Tenure is earned and not just
granted. It is time to place value behind teacher tenure in Seattle.
8. Stronger Teacher Evaluations
Seattle needs to modify its teacher evaluation system if the district
seeks to be able to identify effective teachers. Key modifications
include: holding teachers accountable to student achievement and
instructional impact, increasing the number of unscheduled teacher
observations, using outside observers to assess teacher ratings, and
holding principals responsible for evaluations ratings.
Without strong teacher evaluations Seattle will struggle to obtain
objective data surrounding teacher performance. The best objective data
available is that of student achievement gains and student growth and
Seattle’s best bet to strengthen teacher evaluations is to implement
the use of an instrument that will link student performance to
teachers. Let’s start recognizing teachers for their students’ gains
and holding them accountable to achieving student growth in a
classroom.
7. Improve Teacher Induction Program
Seattle needs to strengthen teacher induction support by modifying
current programs like STAR (Staff Training Assistance and Review) and
lengthening the amount of time teacher mentor support is provided.
Seattle’s teacher induction program is strong but can be stronger.
Every teacher should be assigned a mentor – not just a selected few –
mentorship needs to be available for teachers outside their first year,
and the district needs to recruit more teacher mentors.
6. Keep Teachers In the Classroom
Seattle teachers use nearly every sick day, max-out their personal
leave allowance and specific schools have abnormally high teacher
absentee rates – simply stated, teachers are away from the classroom
too often. Seattle needs to consider the use of incentives to change
this behavior.
Based upon data collected in NCTQ’s report Seattle teachers appear to
be taking a higher number of sick leave days (absent rate of 6 percent a year)
compared to what other professionals report their employees take
(absent rate of 3 percent a year). This is not acceptable. We need to provide
incentives and create conditions that will get teachers excited about
going to work everyday.
5. Modify Teacher Schedule
The teacher schedule has not been strategically developed by Seattle.
The amount of time teachers are with students is far too little, there
is not enough planning and preparation time, and the amount of days
teachers work are too few. Seattle needs to lengthen the teacher
workday to a full 8-hour, provide teachers with more designated
planning time, use staff meetings for collaborative planning, and meet
the Washington state legal requirement of 180 student instructional
days.
The fact that Seattle Public School District has not thought
strategically about how to structure a teachers day is concerning. More
concerning is the fact that Seattle has reduced the number of school
days from 180 to 177. It is critical that Seattle make reforms that
will provide teachers with quality time to develop and collaborate on
lesson plans as well as increase the amount of instruction time our
students are receiving.
4. Equitably Distribute Experienced Teachers
Seattle needs to address the current ratio of experienced and
inexperienced teachers in schools to ensure that every student in a
Seattle Public School receives the best teacher possible. By
distributing Seattle’s effective and experienced teachers to schools
with high poverty rates or to low-performing schools the district can
start to address both the high teacher turnover rates at low-performing
schools and low student achievement rates.
Not surprisingly, schools serving a high percentage of low-income
students are more likely to have inexperienced teachers. In contrast,
schools with less than 25 percent of students in poverty have less than 1 percent of
inexperienced teachers on staff. It’s time to level out the playing
field so every student can have access to an experienced, and likely,
effective teacher.
3. Adjust Hiring and Assigning Timeline
Seattle currently allows teachers until the end of the summer to give
notice of their intention to depart. What comes of this? The district
is left scrambling to fill vacancies at the beginning of the school
year and, as such, less attractive candidates remain to select from.
Establishing early notification incentives for teachers who are
resigning or retiring will help encourage teachers to give notice
before the end of the summer and allow Seattle the opportunity to seek
more qualified candidates.
This seems like a simple fix – require teachers to give notice in the
Spring or at the end of the school year. In order to improve teacher
quality and effectiveness Seattle needs to start recruiting talented
new teachers and if left to the end of summer filing critical shortage
areas with strong talent will continue to be difficult.
2. Site-Based Teacher Assignment
Seattle needs to modify its current system that reassigns and transfers
teachers. Currently seniority is the means by which teachers are
allowed the opportunity can change positions within a school. Seattle
should examine the possibility of providing principals greater input on
a teacher assignment and site-based hiring.
Who knows the needs of the school better than principals? And, why not
allow transfer positions available to all teachers and base hiring off
of experience, expertise and qualifications? Principals should have
decision making authority surrounding teacher assignments.
1. Refine Teacher Compensation
Seattle needs to take drastic strides with its current teacher
compensation system. Specific measures that need modification are:
• Remove teacher advanced degree incentives;
• Equalize pay raises that newer teachers receive;
• Provide higher pay raises to teachers once they earn tenure; and
• Reallocate degree based compensation to the most effective teachers.
Without addressing the current teacher compensation system Seattle will
not be able to identify, recruit, reward or retain effective teachers.
Teacher compensation and incentive systems need to be redesigned so
that teacher salaries are competitive and recognize effective teachers.