Improving Teacher Effectiveness | Page 3

Taking Note Superintendent Selection in Tennessee: A Brief History February 2011 effectiveness and willingness to take a leadership role within their school. Not only has the state created this flexibility, but it has also received over $194 million in competitive federal and philanthropic grants to help districts develop these alternative salary schedules. In addition, as part of Race to the Top, the state has contracted with the non-profit Battelle for Kids to provide technical assistance to districts that want to develop alternative salary schedules. Together, these legislative changes and resources provide a true opportunity for districts to develop new ways of rewarding highly effective teachers. Future Opportunities Despite the progress outlined above, Tennessee still has a very long way to go in ensuring there is an effective teacher in every classroom. This section outlines best practices from other states that Tennessee might want to consider adopting to further improve teacher effectiveness. Differentiating Teachers Strategies for supporting, rewarding, and removing teachers based on their effectiveness are dependent upon being able to accurately and reliably determine a teacher’s effectiveness. Tennessee must focus on ensuring that the state’s new teacher evaluation system, which is currently in development, is able to accurately and reliably differentiate teache rs. As mentioned above, the First to the Top Act committed Tennessee to developing a new evaluation system based 50% on qualitative data (e.g., classroom observations) and 50% on quantitative student achievement data. Over the past several months, the state has made significant progress on developing the classroom observation rubric, but much work remains in defining the quantitative student achievement data to include in the new evaluation system, especially for teachers without TVAAS data. The state has not yet begun to develop a plan for rolling out training on the new evaluation system. Ensuring that the development of the teacher evaluation system is on track must be one of the new Commissioner of Education’s top priorities. Although no state has fully developed a high-quality evaluation system based on student achievement data, there are a few districts that have begun to do so. For example, the Teacher Advancement Program (TAP) is based on a teacher evaluation system that combines classroom observations with student achievement data. TAP currently operates in 67 school districts across the country, and the classroom observation portion of TAP is currently being piloted by the Tennessee Department of Education to inform the development of the state’s new teacher evaluation system. Similarly, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is working with four sites across the country, including Memphis City Schools, on an over $1 billion Measures of Effective Teaching (MET) Project to understand best practices in evaluating teacher effectiveness. The first set of results from this research was released in December 2010 with additional results expected in Summer 2011. Over the coming months, it will be critical for Tennessee to learn from these best practices as it completes the development of its new evaluation system. Page 3 Grants to Develop Alternative Salary Schedules Grant LOCATION AMOUNT Gates Foundation Teacher Effectiveness Initiative Memphis $110 million Teacher Incentive Fund Knoxville, Memphis, Statewide $72 million Race to the Top Innovation Acceleration Fund Statewide $12 million Total Statewide $194 million Supporting All Teachers Research has shown that professional development seminars that teachers attend for one or two days rarely alter teachers’ classroom behavior and improve teachers’ effectiveness.xxv By contrast, both intensive mentoring programs for new teachers and grade-level or subject-specific professional learning communities (in which teachers have time set aside during the school day to collaborate with other teachers) have been shown to improve teachers’ effectiveness.xxvi Although Tennessee will likely not have resources to fund these types of professional development opportunities at scale in the short-term, other states have found several innovative ways to offer teachers meaningful professional development opportunities at a low cost. First, some states, such as Colorado and New Jersey, have developed support networks for districts working to implement mentoring programs or professional learning communities. Tennessee could easily implement similar support networks for the state’s 35 districts that are using Race to the Top funds to develop mentoring programs or the state’s 15 districts that are using Race to the Top funds to develop professional learning communities. Second, some states are providing teachers with online professional development resources. For example, Michigan has developed a website for teachers with online professional development resources organized by topic. Tennessee has developed a similar website called the Electronic Learning Center (ELC), but could go a step further by aligning the existing professional development resources available on the ELC with the new teacher evaluations system so that teachers can electronically go online to a single portal, review their evaluation results, and find professional learning opportunities that address their specific needs. Finally, several states, such as Delaware, are requiring districts to develop comprehensive, district-wide teacher professional development plans. Tennessee could require that districts do the same as part of each district’s state-mandated improvement plan. Rewarding the Most Effective Teachers As discussed above, Tennessee’s tenure and compensation systems must both be 1207 18th Avenue South, Suite 326, Nashville, TN 37212 — tel 615.727.1545 — fax 615.727.1569 — www.tnscore.org