Effective teachers and leaders matter. When students are prepared for work, life or college it is strongly the result of the talent and skills of teachers.  But, how do we ensure that every student has an effective teacher that can sufficiently develop their academic knowledge? Are there ways to identify effective teachers and then scale the best practices of effective teachers across the field?

The Department of Education (DOE) is making a $4.35B bet through Race to the Top (RTTT) that effective and ineffective teachers can be identified by student achievement data and recruited and retained through modifications to the current teacher and principal pathways and policies.

With nearly half of the points allocated in the RTTT proposal requirements to the “Great Teachers and Leaders” assurance, it can be argued as the most important.  Furthermore the assurance has direct ties that it has with the other three assurances so it is imperative that states put forth strong teacher evaluation proposals:

• Turning around failing schools – identifying strong teacher/leader teams to assist transfer or mentor teachers with a goal to improving school conditions;
• Development of longitudinal data systems – allows for teachers to access data that tracks students regardless of their migration between states, districts or schools; and
• Adoption or adaption of the core curriculum – establish a set of recommended national graduation requirements which teachers must ensure students demonstrate knowledge of. 

States that can strongly demonstrate how they will improve effective teaching measures are also demonstrating strengths embedded in the other assurances and, as such, will be in a prime position to win the Department of Education’s Race to the Top.

What’s Required?

Built within the effective teaching measure assurance are five components that RTTT encourages states to demonstrate through current systems or strategic plans on how they will implemented. These five components, and the points allocated by the RTTT proposal, are below:

• Promoting and developing alternative pathways for aspiring teachers (21 points)
• Improving teacher and principal performance through rigorous evaluation (58 points)
• Improving the equitable distribution of effective teachers (25 points)
• Improving teacher and principal mentorship and training programs (14 points)
• Providing effective support to teachers and principals (20 points)

How Does Washington Measure Up? 

Unfortunately Washington is not in a strong position to meet this assurance.

The barriers in Washington state are significant – not only is legislative action required but negotiations with the labor leaders from the Washington Education Association will be required.

What Must Washington do to be Competitive?

Despite the likely obstacle the Washington will face in implementing the teaching reforms recommended in this assurance, it is imperative that the state find a way to design next generation teacher evaluation systems that can identify effective teaching based on multiple measures of impact on student learning. Linking teacher performance to growth in student achievement is viewed by the DOE as a necessity in order to win RTTT.

In addition to the revisions to the current teacher evaluation model, the state will need to take strides to demonstrate other aspects of this assurance. Finding a middle ground between the reforms in RTTT and the public statement that WEA has made on them will be difficult for Washington – however this is a battle worth taking.

Effective teachers matter in the state’s educational development of its youth and the state and WEA cannot dispute this fact.