Nothing Matters More than a Quality Teacher

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Nothing Matters More than a Quality Teacher

• Sanders cross-sectional work found that 
  effective teachers boosted the math scores of
  low-achieving students 39 percentile points more
  than students assigned to the ineffective
  teachers.

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Nothing Matters More than a Quality Teacher

• Sanders longitudinal work demonstrated that
  students who performed equally well in math in
  second grade showed enormous performance
  differences three years later, depending on the
  quality of the teachers.

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Nothing Matters More than a Quality Teacher

• Rivers longitudinal work found that average
  achieving students assigned to 4 years of
  ineffective teachers had only a 40 percent chance
  of passing the Tennessee high school exit
  examination. The same students assigned to 4
  years of effective teachers had an 80 percent
  chance of passing.

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Salaries not competitive
Everyone gets same pay
Costs of training not warranted by salary
Women have more career opportunities now
Little collegiality
Little respect from community
Often unpleasant, dangerous environment
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New Ways to Attract Teachers

• Increase Salaries
• School Debt Forgiveness
• Housing Subsidies
• Perks
• PR Campaign
• New Recruitment Strategies
• Accelerated Teacher Education
• More Rigorous Training

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Programs to Attract Retain High Quality Teachers

• small
• isolated efforts
• not school-centered
• poorly designed
• poorly implemented
• rather than systemic reforms
• solve one problem only to create another

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TAP Both Old and New
Multiple Career Paths Career Ladders Performance
Pay
Odden,Denver,Cincinnati Assessment
Sanders,
Danielson, NBPTS Ongoing, Applied
??? Professional
Development Expanding the Pool
N.J. Alt. Cert, Troops to
Teaches, Teach for America TAP is unique
because it ties both teacher performance
assessment student value added to teacher
compensation supports that with a unique
professional development tool.
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Models for the Teaching Profession Career
Advancement
Traditional Model
TAP Model

• Multiple Career Paths
• Senior, Mentor Lead Positions
• Requiring increasing levels of
• professional qualifications
• responsibilities
• authority
• assessment rigor

• Single Career Path
• Teacher Position Only
• Requiring the same level of
• professional qualifications
• responsibility
• authority
• assessment rigor

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Models for the Teaching Profession Compensation
Traditional Model
TAP Model
Performance and Responsibility Drive
Compensation Salary determined by level of
responsibilities and effectiveness of
performance.
Salary Schedule Drives Compensation Lock-step
salary determined only by years of experience and
training units accrued.
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Models for the Teaching Profession Professional
Accountability
Traditional Model
TAP Model

• Performance-based Accountability
• TAP standards, procedures and performance rubrics
• Hiring, advancement and compensation tied to
  evaluation
• Support provided for growth

• Uneven Accountability
• Idiosyncratic evaluation standards procedures
• Rewards and sanction unrelated to evaluation
  outcomes
• Support provided for deficiencies only

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Models for the Teaching Profession Professional
Growth
Traditional Model
TAP Model

• Ongoing Applied Professional Growth
• Schoolwide commitment, weekly, site-based,
  teacher lead activities
• Goals and activities tied to standards, local SIP
  analysis of student learning outcomes
• Used to support and reinforce evaluation growth
  goals

• Inservice/Course-based Professional Development
• Individual commitment, intermittent activities
• Goals and activities tied to personal and
  financial interests of the individual
• Unconnected to evaluation

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Improving Teacher Quality Through
Performance-based Accountability

• Evaluating teacher performance means
• observing what teachers do in their classrooms,
• rating how well they do it, and
• assessing each teachers and the schools impact
  on student achievement.

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TAP Teacher Accountability Versus Past Teacher
Accountability Efforts
TAP
Past Efforts

• Checklist of Teaching Behaviors
• Two Performance Levels
• Evaluation excludes student achievement
• One Evaluator
• Evaluation supports deficiencies only
• Performance independent of compensation

• Teaching Performance Standards
• Five Performance Levels
• Evaluation includes school and classroom
  achievement
• Multiple Evaluators
• Evaluation support professional growth
• Performance tied to compensation

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TAP Teaching Performance Standards Skills
Knowledge Responsibilities

• What do the teacher performance standards look
  like?
• 5 levels of performance ranging from exemplary to
  proficient to unsatisfactory
• Descriptive narratives of expected performance
• Teacher Performance Standards Examples
• Communicating Directions Instructional Content
• Questioning
• Thinking

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TAP Teaching Performance Standards

• Who rates teacher performance?
• Four Qualified School-based Evaluators
• Administrator
• Master Teacher
• Mentor Teacher
• Self
• How often is each teacher observed?
• 10 times per year
• Administrator - at least 2 times per year
• Master teacher - at least 6 times per year
• Mentor teacher - at least 2 times per year

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TAP Classroom and School Value-Added Achievement

• Base decisions on value-added gains
• Use the TAP value-added statistical model
• Set leveled criteria for school gains, and
  classroom gains (13, 8, 4, Years Growth,
  Negative gain)
• Test every year
• Use reliable and valid tests
• Tie student level data to teacher each year

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Teacher Compensation

• Abysmally low
• Not differentiated
• Not tied to teaching performance
• Not tied to student achievement
• Based on teachers years experience and units
  earned which are both poor predictors of student
  achievement.

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TAP Compensation

• Pays teachers based on performance
• Pays teachers differently based on performance.
• Three types of performances count
• Teaching Performance Standards Skills, Knowledge
  Responsibilities 50
• Classroom Achievement - 20
• School Achievement 30

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• Augment not supplant single salary schedule
• Reward teachers for achieving school wide goals
• Financial incentives for low performing schools
  
• Bonuses for passing National Board

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How TAP Compensation System Has Evolved

• Performance awards are given as a bonus to be
  earned each year.
• Performance awards supplement rather than
  replace traditional step and column pay scale.
• No one earns less than they would have earned
  under the traditional compensation system.
• Performance awards are not cumulative and must
  be constrained by available funds, usually
  augmenting salaries by 5,000 or less
• 50 of the bonus is awarded for skills and
  knowledge
• 50 is based upon student achievement
  (value-added)
• 30 school-wide for all teachers
• 20 based on achievement of individual
  teachers students

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How TAP Compensation System Has Evolved

• Since subject specific tests are often
  unavailable, the student achievement element of
  the bonus for high school teachers is
  complicated.
• Bonuses are criterion referenced rather than
  relative, which means that any teacher who meets
  a standard receives the bonus.
• No one loses money (compared to what they would
  have earned without TAP) for poor performance.
• Teachers who score well on the skills and
  knowledge part can earn bonuses even if their
  students scores do not improve.
• There must be the opportunity for all teachers
  to get a bonus of some amount. We cannot say
  only the top X will receive bonuses.
• If teacher work more days, they must get paid
  for them at least at their former daily rate.

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Implementating TPBA System

• Develop Teacher Evaluation System
• Establish career, mentor, and master teaching
  performance standards
• Establish career, mentor, and master teacher
  responsibilities performance standards
• Review the TAP T-PBA policies
• Establish the criteria for classroom achievement
  gains attributed to the teacher
• Establish the criteria for the school achievement
  gains

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Implementation Compensation

• Establish the school or district compensation
  model
• Establish TAP Salary Augmentations
• Establish TAP Performance Award Fund
• Establish Performance Award Weights

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Implementation Teacher Evaluation Training

• Participate in the teacher performance-based
  accountability training
• Train all evaluators using the TAP video training
  materials
• Certify all evaluators
• Continue training throughout the year

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We Have Revised Our Model as Follows

• Most masters and mentors come from existing
  staff .
• New teacher salaries are higher or not lower
  than before TAP.
• New teachers probably will not be hired at the
  bottom of the associate range.
• Significant time off from school for masters is
  unrealistic at the start.
• Master teachers will have to spend more time
  teaching than anticipated.
• Tenure not eliminated.
• Ratios of mentor and masters vary with available
  resources.
• Unanticipated costs paying for tests not now
  given, travel expenses for teachers to get
  training, training materials.

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Intermediate Outcomes

• Teachers opt for new system vs. existing system
• Changes in types of individuals applying
• Number of applicants
• Differences in characteristics of people hired
• Changes in teacher retention rates
• Changes in which teachers stay in classroom
• Survival rates in the first five years
• Changing nature of collective bargaining
• Stakeholder perceptions of staff quality
  professionalism
• Teacher satisfaction data

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Process Issues

• Number of schools using the model
• Distribution of TAP schools by location, SES,
  ethnicity
• Amount of discretionary funds to support TAP
• Support from private foundations and
  corporations
• Extent to which schools adhere to the five
  principles

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The Cost of TAP

• Incremental costs 6 of budget OR
  400/student
• No current teacher worse off
• Salary supplements for Master Mentor teachers
• New teacher positions
• New specialists hired
• Associate teachers summer professional growth
• Turnover savings not kept by school
• Traditional salary schedule increases in place

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We Can Cover Costs By

• Changing parameters (master mentor ratios)
• Keeping turnover savings in the schools
• Converting regular salary schedule increases
  into performance pool
• Utilizing existing grants (Title I for aides or
  lead teachers)
• New money

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Overview of AZTAP School Characteristics
Total Number of AZTAP School 7 Number in year
one implementation 2 Number in year two
implementation 5 School Characteristics Range in
TAP School Student Population 400 to 1,350
students Ratio of Master to Career Teachers 9/1
to 17/1 Ratio of Mentor to Career Teachers 3/1 to
8/1 Number of Cluster Groups 4 to 10 Time Cluster
Groups Meet Weekly 1 hour to 4 hours Grades
Represented K-2 -K-4 -K-6 -K-12 - 3-8
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Why the Slow Growth of Performance Pay?

• Steps on the special interests of powerful
  education groups.
• Unions do not want system where any members are
  disappointed.
• Parents always want smaller classes for their
  kids despite lack of evidence that class size
  matters.
• Smaller classes make things easier for teachers
  in their classrooms.
• Standards, accountability and compensation based
  on performance put more pressure on teachers.
• School boards districts that see teacher
  quality initiatives as devolving power from
  districts to individual schools.
• Education schools see their market for
  credentials and professional development courses
  getting smaller

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Why the Slow Growth of Performance Pay?

• Strong vested interests oppose having teachers
  held accountable evaluated by student
  performance.
• They disparage research that concludes that
  teachers are responsible for student achievement
  and should be rewarded accordingly
• Some people do not find the research compelling
  because it depends upon test scores as the
  measure of student performance.
• They claim test scores may be a fatally flawed
  measure of student learning
• Teachers think using test scores for evaluation
  is unfair because they depend upon who is in
  their class THEY DO NOT UNDERSTAND OR
  ACKNOWLEDGE VALUE ADDED (GAINS RATHER THAN
  LEVELS)

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Why the Slow Growth of Performance Pay?

• Schools have other responsibilities than student
  achievement.
• In earlier generations, kids who could learn
  were in school and those who couldnt learn left
  to pursue unskilled work.
• Then it was decided that in the name of equity
  and social justice (and to keep delinquent kids
  off the street), all kids should stay in school,
  regardless of what they could learn.
• Schools were distracted from main goal of
  helping kids learn.
• To show effectiveness, teachers needed more
  achievable/ abstract/different goals than
  student learning to justify efforts.
• Focus moved away from what kids learn to how
  they feel.
• K-12 education has focused on affective domain
  that what kids learn has gotten short shrift
• Extremely radical to now change entire focus of
  education

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Why the Slow Growth of Performance Pay?

• Effective teachers are defined as raising
  student test scores, but there is little
  evidence on the characteristics of such
  teachers.
• We still do not know what these effective
  teachers do that is different or how to get
  others to do those things.
• Little agreement about what expert pedagogy
  means, and little empirical confirmation of
  effective practice.
• Traditionally, teachers have been expected to
  demonstrate their effectiveness-however
  defined-only while in school one time through
  National Board certification, not annually.

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Why the Slow Growth of Performance Pay?

• Systemic policy change requires leadership
  support at the school, district and state
  levels. Those in positions of leadership may
  resist because
• School principals have rarely been
  instructional leaders
• Most principals are more often building and
  personnel managers
• Such efforts are controversial
• They have other priorities
• They require a huge commitment
• It is hard work

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Why the Slow Growth of Performance Pay?

• Some dont truly believe that there are many
  things wrong with American Schools.
• If schools are ineffective, that is due to
  poverty, race, geography, or lack of funding
  but not due to the need for systemic change in
  the schools.
• Unfortunately, there is not universal belief all
  kids can learn.
• There appear to be simpler solutions for
  improving schools like Nat.Board, across board
  raises, increasing standards for teachers or
  class size reduction.
• Education is generally viewed as a state or
  local responsibility, so we must convince 17,000
  separate organizations of its merit.

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Why the Slow Growth of TAP?

• Other priorities
• Unwilling to fight teachers unions
• Belief that pluses of Perf. Pay outweighed by
  the negatives
• Reluctance of school boards to support site
  based programs
• Reform is not likely to be pivotal in
  reelection/reappointment
• No evidence yet that TAP improves student test
  scores
• Sticker shock high cost compared to other
  reforms
• Lack of new funds state budget problems
• Belief that political/educational payoff would
  be better if discretionary funds were spent
  elsewhere
• Unwillingness to spend disproportionate share of
  discretionary funds on small of TAP schools

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What It Takes to Successfully Implement
Whole-School Reform

• Commitment to all components of reform model.
• Buy-in by entire staff
• Minimum of 80 buy-in.
• Consensus of teacher support
• Implementation must be by choice rather than
  mandated
• Low teacher turnover
• Commitment by staff to work beyond traditional
  levels to shift school paradigm.

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What It Takes to Successfully Implement
Whole-School Reform

• Political support by
• School board
• District leadership
• Teachers associations/unions
• Community
• State education agency
• State legislature

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What It Takes to Successfully Implement
Whole-School Reform

• Teacher perceptions
• Need for reform
• Readiness of students to learn
• Support for all reform elements
• Limited classroom management issues

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What It Takes to Successfully Implement
Whole-School Reform

• Consistent and stable leadership at school and
  district levels
• Implement in well-managed schools
• Strong principal with authority to make changes
  at the school level
• Strong superintendent with commitment to program
• Leadership communicates well with staff
• Personal commitment to program

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What It Takes to Successfully Implement
Whole-School Reform

• Support of program developers and/or design team
• Clear communication of program
• Flexibility to adapt to local context
• Ongoing training
• Research support
• Technical support
• Ongoing teacher training
• Orient new teachers
• Provide ongoing support to continuing teachers

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What It Takes to Successfully Implement
Whole-School Reform

• Ongoing financial support
• Appropriate reallocation of resources
• Acquisition of new, ongoing funding

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What It Takes to Successfully Implement
Whole-School Reform

• Compatibility of assessments to curriculum
  standards and teaching strategies
• Confidence that achievement gains will be
  captured by assessments used.
• Appropriate use of student-level, teacher-level
  and aggregated school-level data
• Consistency of implementation within and
  across schools
• Absence of conflicting or distracting reforms
  being implemented at school
• Absence of pressure from outside groups to
  implement alternative or additional reforms

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What It Takes to Successfully Implement
Whole-School Reform

• Implement on a small-scale before trying to
  implement on a large-scale
• implement in 2 or 3 schools in a district,
  adding more schools gradually
• Continued increase in schools implementing
  reform
• Smaller schools easier to implement than
  secondary schools
• Elementary schools easier to implement than
  secondary schools
• Allow time for implementation 3-5 years minimum

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What It Takes to Successfully Implement
Whole-School Reform

• Long term commitment by school and district
  leadership 5-20 years
• Research to study impact of program on student
  learning must be long-term
• Results cannot be expected until 2-3 years after
  full implementation
• Longitudinal data is necessary
• Track students and staff over time