TEACHER POLICIES IN NEED OF REFORM

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The National Council on Teacher Quality has released its fourth annual State Teacher Policy Yearbook, reviewing state laws, rules and regulations that govern the teaching profession. Designed as a companion to the 2009 State Teacher Policy Yearbook, which graded the states on their teacher policies related to teacher preparation, alternate routes, licensure, teacher evaluation, compensation, tenure and dismissal policies, the 2010 edition provides customized Blueprints for Change to help policymakers in each state prioritize among the many areas of teacher policy in need of reform.

Each state report identifies the policy areas most in need of critical attention, as well as "lowhanging fruit," policies that can be addressed in relatively short order. Across the states, most teacher policies suffer from:
• Performance management policies that are disconnected from teacher effectiveness;
• Vague and/or weak guidelines for teacher preparation;
• Licensure requirements that do not ensure that teachers have appropriate content knowledge; and
• Obstacles that prevent expansion of the teacher pipeline.

NCTQ identified 11 specific policy areas in need of critical attention across states. In each of these critical reform areas, there are leading states that are moving in the right direction and sometimes serving as models for other states. Massachusetts, for example, was assigned the fewest critical attention areas of any of the states, with just three, although the critical attention areas Massachusetts needs to address are the particularly crucial and hot-button issues: connecting evaluation, tenure and dismissal policy to teacher effectiveness. At the same time, there are three states – Colorado, Oklahoma and Rhode Island – that, while still having a significant number of critical attention areas to address, do not have evaluation, tenure and dismissal identified as serious issues in their Blueprints. These are states to watch in these policy arenas.

In all, 27 states need to address nine or more of the 11 critical attention areas identified by NCTQ. Alaska, Arizona, Idaho, Maine, Montana, Nebraska and Oregon were assigned every single critical attention area.

Each state’s Blueprint for Change, as well as a national summary, is available here.

Key Findings: Because of the federal Race to the Top competition, 2010 was not a typical year in teacher policy. Almost every state entered the race, and their efforts to be competitive and secure some of the $4.3 billion in federal funds led to a number of significant new laws and regulations:

__ The latest policy review found an increase in the number of states requiring annual evaluations of all teachers (from 15 states in 2009 to 21 states in 2010) and a more than doubling of the number of states requiring that evidence of student learning be the preponderant criterion in teacher evaluations (from 4 states in 2009 to 10 states in 2010).

__ The review also revealed a large spike in the number of states adopting policies for holding teacher preparation programs in their states accountable based on the academic performance of students taught by their graduates (from just Louisiana piloting an effort in 2009 to 14 states in 2010) .

__ Among the 12 Race to the Top winners, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Florida, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Tennessee had the fewest critical areas to address and are states worth watching as the program moves forward on teacher policy implementation.

Most states' evaluation, tenure and dismissal policies remain disconnected from classroom effectiveness.

__ Teacher evaluation is a critical attention area in 42 states because the vast majority of states do not ensure that evaluations, whether state or locally developed, preclude teachers from receiving satisfactory ratings if those teachers are found to be ineffective in the classroom. In addition, the majority of states still does not require annual evaluations of all veteran teachers, and most still fail to include any objective measures of student learning in the teacher evaluations they do require.

__ In 46 states, teachers are granted tenure with little or no attention paid to how effective they are with students in their classrooms. While there are a few states that have vague requirements for some consideration of evidence, and a few others that promise that teacher evaluations will “inform” tenure decisions, only Colorado, Delaware, Oklahoma and Rhode Island demand that evidence of student learning be the preponderant or decisive criterion in such decisions.

__ Dismissal is a critical attention area in 46 states. There are at least two state leaders taking this issue head on. In Oklahoma, recent legislation requires that tenured teachers be terminated if they are rated “ineffective” for two consecutive years, or rated as “needs improvement” for three years running, or if they do not average at least an “effective” rating over a five-year teaching period. In Rhode Island, teachers who receive two years of ineffective evaluations will be dismissed. Any teacher with five years of ineffective ratings would not be eligible to have his or her certification renewed by the state.

Requirements for teacher preparation too often fail to ensure teacher candidates have the most critical knowledge and skills.

__ Despite compelling evidence about the most effective ways to teach young children to read, NCTQ identified 43 states with critical work to be done to ensure elementary teacher candidates enter the classroom with these essential skills.

__ Forty-nine states have critical work to do to ensure that elementary school teachers statewide have a deep conceptual knowledge of the mathematics that they will teach. Massachusetts is the clear role model, requiring elementary teacher candidates to pass a rigorous test of mathematics content covering topics specifically geared to the needs of elementary teachers.

__ Twenty-two states fail to differentiate preparation between elementary and middle school teachers, allowing middle school teachers, in all or at least some circumstances, to teach on a K-8 generalist license.

__ Only 14 states use student achievement data as part of their approval processes for teacher preparation programs, and most of these are newly coming on line as part of states' winning Race to the Top proposals.

In almost every state, licensure requirements do not ensure that teachers know the subject matter they will teach.

__ 34 states have significant licensure loopholes that allow teachers to teach without passing all required subject-matter assessments.

__ In every state but Massachusetts, the expectations for how well elementary teacher candidates will perform on licensing exams are exceedingly low.

Rather than working to expand the teacher pipeline, many states create obstacles in their alternate routes to certification.

__ Alternate route admissions is a critical attention area in 38 states. Many states do not provide flexibility to nontraditional candidates in how candidates demonstrate subject-matter knowledge; other states do not ensure that alternate route teachers have subject-matter expertise.

__ Alternate route diversity is a critical attention area in 28 states that limit program providers and/or the grades and subjects that can be taught by alternate route teachers.

The report also identifies "low-hanging fruit" for each state, recommendations for policy changes that can be made in relatively short order, as well as longer-term systemic issues that states need to keep on their reform agendas. Examples of low-hanging fruit include changing the timing of basic skills testing so that it is a condition of admission to a teacher preparation program rather than deferred until licensure and specifically requiring that new teachers receive evaluations early in the first year so that those new to the classroom can get early feedback and support. Three systemic issues are identified for all states – performance management, pension reform and certification of special education teachers.