Transforming Teacher Work in Action
All over the country states, cities, districts, and individuals are transforming teacher work and bettering their communities.
Guidepost 1
Thirteen Steps to Teacher Empowerment - Heinemann Publishing
In “13 Steps to Teacher Empowerment,” Zemelman and Ross outline 13 best practices that empower individual teachers and the school in order to improve overall student achievement. These practices focus on teacher leadership; whether it involves facilitating teacher to teacher collaboration or taking a hands-on approach in developing universal curricula for the whole department. Research strongly indicates teacher collaboration leads to higher student achievement.
A Better Turnaround Strategy - Education Week
As part of an i3 grant, Jefferson County School District in Kentucky has recently implemented an effective model to turn around failing schools. The “Investment Model,” based in the idea that a collaborative teaching environment best fosters student achievement, started in 2010-11 school year. Jefferson County students have already made strong gains in math and reading proficiency.
Correlations of Collaborative School Cultures with Student Achievement in Indiana – Department of Educational Leadership, Administration, and Foundations at Indiana State University
Indiana State University set out to study the relationship between collaborative environements and student achievement. The results confirmed their intitial hypothesis as Gruenert found a definite positive correlation between collaborative school environments and higher student test scores in 81 public schools studied. Professional development, unity of purpose, and learning partnerships were the three categories with the strongest link to high student achievement.
Guidepost 2
Getting it Right: A comprehensive guide to developing and sustaining teacher evaluation and support systems - National Board for Professional Teacher Standards
The “Getting it Right” guide aims to develop more meaningful teacher evaluation systems. In order to improve educator skill and benefit students the best teachers need to work with lower performing teachers to create substantial plans to encourage student learning. However, before that happens, there is a need for objective standards by which to evaluate teachers. Teacher to teacher observation, mentoring, and administrative support are a few of the guiding principles that “Getting it Right” follows.
Teacher Leader Model Standards - Teacher Leadership Exploratory Consortium
Developed by the Teacher Leadership Exploratory Consortium, “Model Teacher Leader Standards” sets out to transform the role of the teacher in the classroom, community, and profession into a teacher-leader. The teacher-leader will use modern tools to facilitate coordination among colleagues in order to implement the best teaching practices possible. Teacher leaders will understand the environment and varied educational needs of their unique community and apply this knowledge to advocate for student learning and the profession. This new role will help usher in an era of professional collaboration among teachers, administration, community, and students.
Dangerous Mind Games - American Enterprise Institute
Dale argues that teaching is a “team sport” and focuses on expanding responsibilities for the best teachers. A pilot program based on the teacher leadership program showed marked improvement in student achievement in elementary, middle and high schools.
Guidepost 3
A System Approach to Building a World Class Teaching Profession - The Alliance for Excellent Education
Research strongly indicates that one key to recruiting and keeping great teachers is better induction practices. Comprehensive induction is the practice of giving new teachers high quality mentors, scheduled time to plan and interact with other teachers, continual participation in seminars and intensive professional development, and ongoing communication and support from school administrators. Improving the quality of educators needs to start with how teachers are introduced to the profession and providing them with numerous opportunities for improvement along the way.
How the world’s most improved school systems keep getting better - The McKinsey Society
This McKinsey Society report documents exactly what twenty school systems around the world are doing to reform, and what is and isn’t working. One important aspect to improving school systems that was the profound effect that the ‘mediating layer’ in policy implementation had on student achievement. Researchers found that school administrators on a district level played an extremely important role in improving school systems. Local administrators best understand the unique needs and constraints of each community and helped implement national policies to work best on a local level.
Innovative Professional Growth - Baltimore City Schools
Baltimore City Schools have adopted a plan concerning professional development for teachers that rewards development in relevant areas and is aligned with the Common Core Standards. This new professional growth system allows teachers to pursue professional development opportunities and teachers move up within their track. Baltimore is leading the way in innovating how we think about teaching careers.
Guidepost 4
One Unshakable Vision: World-Class Schools for Iowa - Iowa Governor's Office
Iowa Governor Terry Branstad recently released a report outlining Iowa’s goals to improve public schools to be on par with the best in the world. The multi step plan sets out to attract and develop better educators by transforming the teacher compensation system, providing better supports for teachers, focus on peer to peer collaborative efforts between teachers, and install end of course readiness measures for students.
The Teaching Job: Restructuring for Effectiveness - Education Resource Strategies
This Education Resource Strategies (ERS) report based on first hand observations in public schools presents a plan for basic teacher reform. The policy recommendations include new ways to define and measure teacher effectiveness based in peer evaluation as well as value added measures, giving districts more flexibility in hiring practices, more opportunities for targeted professional development, collaborative planning time for teachers, and reworking compensation based on newly developed career paths.
Teachers Must Lead! – Education Week
Lori Nazareno, a Denver teacher, has first hand experience in New School techniques working in a teacher leadership role. She writes that her expanded leadership role has helped make a difference in the careers of her colleagues, and in turn, the lives of countless students.
