Attachment D

**Massachusetts Equity Plan**

### Preface

The Massachusetts Department of Education has developed this Equity
Plan, as required by the federal No Child Left Behind Act, to ensure
that poor and minority children throughout the Commonwealth are not
taught by inexperienced, unqualified, or out-of-field teachers at higher
rates than are other children.

*Please note that throughout the plan, the Massachusetts Department of
Education references districts. By districts, the MA DOE means
traditional school districts as well as charter schools.*

####### Plan Components

The Plan presents the current and future initiatives in eight different
areas that the Department will employ to meet this goal. The Council of
Chief State School Officers has outlined the following eight areas as
important components of a State Equity Plan. They include:

-   Data and Reporting Systems -- Developing the teacher data and
    reporting systems needed to identify and correct inequities in the
    distribution of quality teachers in high-poverty/high-minority
    schools vs. low-poverty/low-minority schools.

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-   Teacher Preparation -- Building a Pipeline of Prospective Teachers
    for High-Poverty, Low-Performing Schools.

-   Out-of-Field Teaching -- Reducing the incidence of out-of-field
    teaching (particularly in mathematics, science, special education,
    and bilingual education/English as a Second Language) in
    high-poverty, low-performing schools.

-   Recruitment and Retention of Experienced Teachers -- Building a
    critical mass of qualified, experienced teachers who are willing to
    work in hard-to-staff schools.

-   Professional Development -- Strengthening the skills, knowledge, and
    qualifications of teachers already working in high-poverty,
    low-performing schools.

-   Special Knowledge and Skills -- Ensuring that teachers have the
    specialized knowledge and skills they need to be effective with the
    populations of students typically served in high-poverty,
    low-performing schools (including Native American students, English
    language learners, and other students at risk).

-   Working Conditions -- Improving the conditions in hard-to-staff
    schools that contribute to excessively high rates of teacher
    turnover.

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-   Policy Coherence -- Improving internal processes or revising state
    policies that may inadvertently contribute to local staffing
    inequities.

In addition to providing strategies in each of the areas listed above,
the Department will support this plan by:

-   *Working with district leaders to highlight the equitable
    distribution of teachers as one of the Department's priority goals.*
    The MA DOE will work with the Urban Superintendents Network, the
    Educational Personnel Advisory Council, Massachusetts Association of
    School Personnel Administrators, the Massachusetts Association of
    School Superintendents and the two Principals' Associations to
    clearly communicate the Department's priority goal of equitable
    distribution of teachers. Some districts are also using their latest
    round of collective bargaining agreement negotiations to resolve
    attracting highly qualified candidates for shortage area positions
    and for hard to staff schools. The Department will be promoting such
    promising practices statewide.

-   *Providing Targeted Assistance to High Need Schools.* Through the
    Department's District and School Accountability System, the
    Department will work directly with schools to identify and address
    inequitable distribution of teachers as part of the school
    improvement process.

####### 

####### Current Inequities in Teacher Assignment

The Department has used its HQT and licensure data, gathered through the
District and School Staffing Report (DSSR), to understand the current
distribution of inexperienced and unqualified teachers throughout the
state. In addition, the Department has used the data to examine high
poverty schools and schools not making AYP as its basis for poverty.
Please refer to Attachments A, B and C of the State's Revised HQT Plan
which have been attached.

Based on this data, the Department has determined that high poverty
schools are having a more difficult time recruiting HQ teachers, helping
existing teachers become HQT and retaining teachers that are already
HQT; high poverty secondary schools show more difficulty than high
poverty elementary schools. High poverty secondary schools have shown
the greatest decrease in HQT percentages between 2004-2005 and
2005-2006. In addition, the gap between high and low poverty secondary
schools has grown to be larger than the gap between high and low poverty
elementary schools. Please see Attachment C of the state's revised HQT
Plan for a list of districts that fell within the high poverty
classification for the 2005-2006 school year including their HQT data
for that year.

The total percentage of HQT in 2005-2006 for schools currently not
making AYP has hovered around 91% for the past two years. There are
currently 617 schools that have been identified with an AYP status.
Forty-eight percent of the schools that fall within the high poverty
category are also schools that are not making AYP. Sixty-five percent of
this sub-group have HQT percentages above 90%, compared to 73% HQT for
the AYP schools as a whole; approximately nineteen percent have HQT
percentages between 80% and 90%, compared to 16% HQT for the AYP schools
as a whole; and sixteen percent fall below 80% HQT, compared to 11% HQT
for the AYP schools as a whole. Please see Attachment B of the state's
revised HQT Plan for data related to the schools that are not making
AYP.

This plan addresses these inequities as well as general inequities that
exist throughout the state. Through the development and implementation
of Massachusetts' Educator Personnel Information Management System
(EPIMS), the Department will have the capability to acquire
educator-level data, with respect to tracking the state's teacher
population including teacher assignment.

[]{.mark}

**The Department is currently working with approximately 30 pilot
districts in the EPIMS pilot project.**  These districts represent a
broad cross-section of the State\'s school districts in terms of size,
geographic location, school types and technical sophistication. Working
with these pilot districts and with an internal DOE subcommittee
consisting of members from units across the Department, the Department
has developed the list of data elements that will be collected by the
EPIMS project. The data elements are grouped into two record types:
staff roster (SR) records and work assignment (WA) records. Districts
will submit one staff roster record per employee for each data
collection and multiple work assignment records for that individual
depending on his or her individual assignments.  The pilot data
collection is based on the snapshot of district employees on October 2,
2006 and will be submitted to MADOE before the end of December 2006. The
following link provides an overview of the pilot districts as well as an
FAQ document regarding EPIMS including: Project Background, Data Access
and Usage, Information about the Unique Identifier, Data Elements to be
Collected and Data Collection Process
(<http://www.doe.mass.edu/infoservices/data/epims/epimsfaq.html>).

The timeline for EPIMS and the updating of our Equity Plan based on
EPIMS data is as follows:

-   Fall 2006 -- Pilot district data collection.

-   Winter 2006/Spring 2007 -- Modify system to reflect lessons learned
    from pilot districts.

-   Spring/Summer 2007 -- Train districts across the state on EPIMS.

-   Fall/Early Winter of 2007 \-- The first full, statewide EPIMS data
    collection will be conducted and will be based on a snapshot of
    employees as of October 1, 2007.

-   Spring of 2008 \-- The Department will have data from EPIMS (absent
    system glitches) which will enable us to conduct more detailed
    analysis on the equitable distribution of teachers. The data
    gathered through EPIMS will allow the state to determine the
    classrooms and students that are affected, and the teachers that are
    inexperienced, or unqualified, based on more detailed definitions
    (rather than relying solely on the HQT and licensure data to analyze
    high poverty and underperforming schools).

-   Late Spring/Early Summer of 2008 \-- The Department will submit an
    updated equity plan to the United States Department of Education;
    this plan will reflect the more robust data and subsequent analysis.
    []{.mark}

-   Fall 2008 -- The Department will be able to monitor district
    progress with relation to the equitable distribution of teachers.
    See information below.

####### 

***Implementation and Monitoring of Equity Plan and District Efforts***

As the Department develops more sophisticated and value-added data
systems, it will amend the plan accordingly to reflect updates to
policies, programs and initiatives. The EPIMS data collection will
provide the Department with the data needed to determine those schools
and districts that may need to be monitored or reviewed with relation to
the equitable distribution of teachers. Since EPIMS will provide
information on individual teachers and the assignment of those teachers
across the state, it will allow the Department to monitor annually how
schools and districts are (or are not) equitably distributing teachers
as well as trends that may be occurring across schools, districts and
the state as a whole. The data collected through EPIMS will provide the
information that the Department needs to understand where issues of
distribution are occurring.

Coupled with EPIMS, the Department will monitor the issue of equitable
distribution of teachers at the local level through the implementation
of the plans that districts are required to submit, as outlined in the
State's Revised HQT plan. The district-planning template includes a
section for districts to address how they will tackle the equitable
distribution of teachers within their schools. This source of monitoring
will be especially important initially since EPIMS will not be fully
implemented statewide until the 2007-2008 school year.

Finally, the Department will coordinate the review of those schools and
districts that through EPIMS and the HQT plans are flagged to have
problems or concerning trends related to the distribution of teachers.
These reviews will use several existing monitoring/outreach mechanisms
that the Department has in place including the monitoring process
outlined in the Revised State HQT Plan, the Coordinated Program Review
process, and the District and School Accountability process.

**[Strategies]{.underline}**

The Department outlines strategies below that will be used to address
the equitable distribution of teachers across the Commonwealth. The
strategies include policy changes that have been determined to have a
positive impact on the equitable distribution of teachers, as well as
the development or continuation of programs that the Department or other
partners have in place.

The programs, policies and overall strategies included in the plan have
been selected from those practices for which we have evidence (or are
reasonably certain) that they will positively impact the equitable
distribution of teachers and have a positive impact on the eight
components below.

Using data from a 50-state survey of policies, state case study
analyses, the 1993-94 Schools and Staffing Surveys (SASS), and the
National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), a study made by the
Center for the Study of Teaching and Policy examined the ways in which
teacher qualifications and other school inputs are related to student
achievement across states, and suggested that policies adopted by states
regarding teacher education, licensing, hiring, and professional
development may make an important difference in the qualifications and
capacities that teachers bring to their work.

1.  **[Data and Reporting Systems]{.underline}**

> The Department currently utilizes the District and School Staffing
> Report (DSSR) as a means to collect educator data at the district and
> school levels. The DSSR also allows the Department to analyze
> inequities in the distribution of quality teachers by comparing the
> HQT and licensure data for high/low poverty schools (See Attachment C
> of the State's Revised HQT Plan), as well as looking at the HQT and
> licensure data for schools that are low performing (not making AYP)
> (Attachment B of the State's Revised HQT Plan).
>
> The DSSR provides the Department with macro level data -- district and
> school progress in meeting the HQT requirements as a whole, as well as
> licensure requirements, and HQT percentages broken down by core
> academic subjects for a particular school or district. The current
> data system, however, does not provide educator-level data needed for
> the micro-analysis of individual teachers, including where individual
> teachers are teaching, what they are currently (or have in the past)
> been assigned to teach, and their educational and professional
> history.
>
> As a result, the Department has been working on the development of the
> Educator Personnel Information Management Systems (EPIMS), funded to
> date by a \$1 million state bond and another \$1 million anticipated
> by this winter. EPIMS will be piloted this year with over 30
> participating districts, including Boston -- the State's largest urban
> school district. The pilot group represents each of the geographic
> regions of the state, as well as urban, suburban, rural populations.
> During the 2007-2008 school year, the EPIMS educator database will be
> fully operational across the state. This database will provide the MA
> DOE with the means to monitor the equitable distribution of teachers
> across the state and within individual schools and districts at a more
> granular, individual educator level.
>
> EPIMS will be linked to the Department's Licensure database (ELAR),
> which also includes information about the educational history of the
> state's licensed teachers. In addition, it will be linked to the
> Massachusetts Teacher Retirement Board (MTRB) database to ensure that
> every employed educator in the state has been captured in the EPIMS
> database. For additional information about EPIMS please refer to
> Attachment E which includes the data elements for the EPIMS project
> (these elements may be revised at a later date depending on what is
> learned from this year's pilot implementation of the database).
>
> Massachusetts has allocated \$5.2 million this fiscal year for the
> purchase of an enterprise education data warehouse with unlimited
> licenses for educators, policy leaders, parents and students to access
> and analyze a wide range of data and the relationships among various
> data sets. This will allow educators at every level to understand the
> relationships among educator recruitment, preparation, licensure,
> hiring, class assignments, HQT status and student performance, and to
> use this information to identify best practices, the impact of
> investments, and where improvements are most needed. The educator
> database, combined with the education data warehouse, will provide the
> state, districts, and schools with the tools to employ more
> data-driven decision making, including the use of "growth models" in
> the development of educator quality policy and programming.

2.  **[Teacher Preparation]{.underline}**

As veteran educators retire across the state and industry attracts our
best and brightest, Massachusetts must build a pipeline of prospective
teachers for all teaching assignments across the state, but particularly
for our students in most need -- those in high-poverty/low-performing
schools. In an effort to address this, the Department is committed to
the following policies/programs/initiatives:

-   *Massachusetts Board of Education's Teacher Preparation Priority.*
    Teacher preparation and quality has been established as one of the
    priorities of the Massachusetts Board of Education in the coming
    year. Recently, the Board agreed that they will develop a timeline
    and process for engaging teachers and administrators, higher
    education representatives, business leaders and other interested
    parties in a dialogue that will lead to specific proposals for
    improving teacher preparation, recruitment, induction, and
    professional development, including proposals that address these
    areas in high need subjects and schools. The Commissioner will bring
    policy recommendations to the Board within the next several months.

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-   *Massachusetts Regulations for Licensure and Preparation Program
    Approval.* To ensure that all teachers, regardless of assignment,
    have the requisite skills and content knowledge needed to positively
    impact student achievement, the State's *Regulations for Licensure
    and Preparation Program Approval* were revised in 2001 to include a
    stronger focus on content. This content focus has been infused into
    each of the teaching licenses. The regulations also require each of
    the teacher preparation programs in Massachusetts to go through a MA
    DOE program approval process to ensure that each of the programs
    addresses the content and other licensure requirements outlined in
    the licensure regulations.

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-   *District-based preparation programs.* Forty-five of the
    Commonwealth\'s school districts, charter schools, educational
    collaboratives, private training providers, and professional
    associations are at various phases of design and implementation of
    district-based programs. The Department encourages districts that
    have hard-to-staff schools and subject areas to create these "grow
    your own" programs. These programs give districts the opportunity to
    invest in teachers from the beginning of their careers, and it
    provides teachers with an opportunity to participate in
    on-the-job-learning.

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-   *Success Factors Study.* The MA DOE recently completed a "Success
    Factors Study", which evaluated the district-based programs across
    the state. The Department has and will continue to use the
    information gathered through this study -- successful models,
    challenges encountered by these programs, strengths and weaknesses
    -- to inform its policies related to these programs. The Department
    will also use the lessons learned by those existing programs located
    in high poverty/low performing districts/schools to target its
    future technical assistance and marketing to prospective programs in
    poverty/low performing districts/schools.

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-   *Massachusetts Initiative for New Teachers (MINT).* The
    Massachusetts Initiative for New Teachers (MINT) is an intensive
    teacher preparation program that provides a unique opportunity for
    the most qualified and motivated recent college graduates and
    mid-career professionals to make an immediate impact in the
    classrooms. MINT participants earn their Massachusetts teaching
    credentials - an Initial license - through an intensive summer
    training initiative, followed by an on-going support and assessment
    program during their first year as a teacher of record in a public
    school. The mission of the MINT program is to recruit and train
    aspiring educators with the expertise and commitment to teach a
    high-demand subject area (mathematics, science and English) in an
    eligible high-need school district. The MINT program is funded by
    the federal Transition to Teaching grant.

[]{.mark}

-   *Tomorrow\'s Teachers Scholarship Program.* In order to meet the
    increasing demand for top quality teachers for the Commonwealth of
    Massachusetts\' public schools, the *Tomorrow\'s Teachers
    Scholarship Program* was established in 1999 by the Massachusetts
    legislature. This program offers scholarships to academically
    talented high school students who wish to pursue a teaching career.
    The scholarships are renewable for four years and are awarded to
    students who; plan to attend Massachusetts's colleges or
    universities; agree to teach for four years in Massachusetts' public
    schools upon graduation from college; and who meet the program
    requirements. The Massachusetts Board of Higher Education
    administers this scholarship program. The MA DOE will work with the
    Massachusetts Board of Higher Education to explore and develop an
    outreach plan that informs prospective and current scholarship
    recipients of the critical need for quality teachers in high
    poverty/low performing schools.

-   *Incentive Program for Aspiring Teachers Tuition Waiver.* The
    Incentive Program for Aspiring Teachers provides support to
    qualified students who, after enrolling in college and earning a
    minimum 3.0 grade point average, decide to enter a certification
    program in a field with demonstrated teacher shortages. Students who
    participate in the program must commit to teaching for two years in
    a public school in the Commonwealth, upon successful completion of a
    bachelor\'s degree from the college or university. The Massachusetts
    Board of Higher Education also administers this program. The MA DOE
    will work with the Massachusetts Board of Higher Education to
    explore and develop an outreach plan, in conjunction with the
    Tomorrow's Teachers Scholarship Program outreach plan outlined
    above.

-   *Paraprofessional Teacher Preparation Grant Program**.*** The
    purpose of the Paraprofessional Teacher Preparation Grant Program is
    to provide financial assistance to Massachusetts residents who are
    currently employed as paraprofessionals in Massachusetts public
    schools, but wish to become certified as full-time teachers. This
    grant is designed to help reduce financial barriers that often
    become obstacles for many paraprofessionals in attaining higher
    education. The program is also an attempt to help address the
    Commonwealth\'s current teacher shortage. The Massachusetts Board of
    Higher Education also administers this program. The MA DOE will
    inform high need schools and districts of this opportunity so that
    they may share this information with eligible paraprofessionals.

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-   *Troops to Teachers.* The Department is currently exploring
    collaboration with the local Troops to Teachers chapter. The Troops
    to Teachers Program helps members of the armed forces meet state
    teacher licensing requirements, and find them employment in
    high-need school districts. Through this prospective collaboration,
    the Department hopes to increase our recruitment and outreach to a
    group that has not been targeted in the past, and increase the
    number of qualified individuals that seek employment in high
    poverty/low performing schools.

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-   *Provide Districts with the Tools that Will Help Them Recruit and
    Assign HQT Teachers.* The Department will encourage districts and
    schools across the state to utilize our free online Massachusetts
    Educators Career Center (MECC) to post employment opportunities.
    MECC provides districts with a useful tool for recruiting qualified
    individuals into their schools. The tool allows districts to post
    employment opportunities, smart search resumes that match the job
    description profile, and much more. MECC is linked to the
    Department's Educator Licensure and Recruitment System (ELAR), and
    therefore automatically confirms the job seeker's licensure status.
    This online recruitment tool also allows job seekers to create a
    profile and post their resumes online for free. Job seekers have the
    option to receive automatic email notifications of potential job
    matches. The above are only some of the many features available to
    make a more streamlined recruitment process for districts.

-   *Science, Technology, Engineering and Math fund (STEM Pipeline).*
    The Acts of 2003 Economic Stimulus Trust Fund legislation
    established the Massachusetts Science, Technology, Engineering and
    Mathematics (STEM) Pipeline Fund and directed the Massachusetts
    Board of Higher Education to administer it in the amount of \$2.5
    million. The purposes of the Pipeline Fund are to; 1) increase the
    number of Massachusetts students who participate in programs that
    support careers in fields related to mathematics, science,
    technology, and engineering; (2)increase the number of qualified
    mathematics, technology, engineering and science teachers in the
    Commonwealth; and 3) improve the mathematics, technology,
    engineering and science educational offerings available in public
    and private schools. The funds support networks and a variety
    projects aimed toward carrying out the goals of the Fund.

**3. [Out-of-Field Teaching]{.underline}**

The Department has and will continue to implement policies that will
help reduce the incidence of out-of-field teaching (particularly in
mathematics, science, special education, and bilingual education/English
as a Second Language) in high-poverty, low-performing schools. Below are
some of those policies:

-   *Add License Requirement in MA Licensure Regulations.* The
    *Massachusetts Regulations for Educator Licensure and Program
    Approval* allow many existing teachers who hold an Initial or
    Professional license to add an additional license by taking the
    appropriate Massachusetts Tests for Educator Licensure (MTEL),
    rather than completing an additional educator preparation program.
    This simplifies the licensure requirements for out-of-field teachers
    to become licensed in the out-of-field area.

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-   *Limits on Out-of-Field Teaching*. In Massachusetts, teachers are
    allowed under state regulation to teach out-of-field for twenty
    percent of their time (603 CMR 7.14(9)(a)). The Department maintains
    this flexibility for districts as they address the teacher shortage
    in specific content areas. However, in an effort to control the use
    of this provision so that it does not contribute to practices that
    are not in the best interests of the Commonwealth's students, the
    Department will implement new policies that will allow for less
    flexibility. These policies will include requiring schools to limit
    the total number of teachers who are teaching out-of-field in a
    specific subject area within a school.

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-   *Massachusetts Math and Science Partnership (MMSP) Program.* The
    purpose of the MMSP program is to improve student achievement in
    mathematics, science, and technology/engineering through intensive,
    high-quality professional development activities that focus on
    deepening teachers\' content knowledge. MMSP partnerships must
    include a high need school district and a mathematics, science, or
    engineering department from an institution of higher education. One
    of the goals of this program is to increase the number of STEM
    teachers in the partner school districts who are licensed in the
    subject area(s) and grade level(s) they teach -- thus giving them an
    opportunity to become licensed in out-of-field math/science areas.

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-   *Attracting Teachers of English Language Learners.* It has become
    evident to the MA DOE through the HQ data and other data that the
    state licensure regulations related to ELL teachers are complicated
    and complex. The result may include dissuading candidates to become
    ELL teachers, thereby exacerbating shortages of these teachers in
    high need districts. The MA DOE recently modified the licensure
    regulations to clarify the purpose of the ELL license by giving it a
    more appropriate name, and removing unnecessary barriers to acquire
    the ELL license without sacrificing standards. These steps will
    likely improve the ability of individuals to become licensed to
    teach the ELL population in Massachusetts, as well as positively
    impact the ELL HQT numbers, and increase the number of ELL teachers
    in the state.

**4. [Recruitment and Retention of Experienced Teachers]{.underline}**

> The Department will continue to build a critical mass of qualified,
> experienced teachers who are willing to work in hard-to-staff schools.
> Below are some of the programs/initiatives/policies that will enable
> the Department to carry out this goal:

-   *New Induction and Mentoring Initiatives.* Through the Department's
    current licensure regulations, all districts are required to provide
    an induction and mentoring program to new teachers during their
    first year of practice. The Department will be revising its
    licensure regulations to eliminate some of the current redundancies
    and implementation challenges. The Department hopes to include
    stronger mentoring/induction requirements and also move much of the
    preparation of teachers to an on-the-job model; thus tying teacher
    preparation with mentoring and induction to eliminate or reduce the
    steep learning curve that many new teachers experience during their
    first year in the classroom. By addressing this, the Department
    hopes to address new teacher attrition and require all districts and
    schools -- including hard-to-staff schools -- to provide new
    teachers with the support needed to be successful in the classroom
    and remain in the teaching field.

-   *Rubrics/Tools for Urban Districts to Use in Making Hiring
    Decisions.* New teacher retention is a problem for many districts,
    but is increasingly difficult to address for high poverty/low
    performing schools. As a result, these districts and schools do not
    have the experienced group of teachers who can provide quality
    teaching and consistency to our Commonwealth's at-risk students. One
    of the tools that the Department will share with our at-risk schools
    and districts to address this is a rubric that will provide
    districts with information about the skill sets and characteristics
    of individuals who have proven successful in working within urban
    schools. Districts and schools can use this rubric as they hire
    prospective individuals. This rubric was designed for the Department
    and implemented with great success by the Department for one of its
    programs.

-   *Special Education Task Force.* MA DOE was selected to receive
    targeted services from National Center for Special Education
    Personnel and Related Service Providers (Personnel Center), a
    federally-funded center at the National Association of State
    Directors of Special Education (NASDSE). These services include
    direct, on-site, technical assistance in the areas of personnel
    recruitment, preparation and retention, including the facilitation
    of statewide workforce development planning and comprehensive
    personnel needs assessment. The Personnel Center recently
    facilitated a state-wide taskforce on recruitment, preparation and
    retention of special education personnel to outline MA DOE needs in
    these areas.

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-   *Critical Shortage Program.* The Critical Shortage Program provides
    for the earnings limitations on re-employment of retirees in
    Massachusetts public schools to be eased in the event of a
    \"critical shortage\", in a position as determined by the Department
    of Education. The DOE has adopted regulation 603 CMR 7.14(13)(b),
    allowing the Commissioner of Education to deem that a district has a
    \"critical shortage\", upon the request of a superintendent, and
    demonstration that the district has made a good-faith effort to hire
    non-retirees and has been unable to find them. This program allows
    districts to retain quality, experienced veteran teachers in
    hard-to-staff subject areas without it adversely affecting their
    retirement benefits. The Department has frequently informed
    districts of this program and will begin, on an annual basis, to
    provide targeted outreach and information regarding this program to
    high poverty/low performing schools and districts.

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-   *National Board for Professional Teaching Standards.* The Department
    encourages individuals to participate in the professional growth
    experience, offered by the National Board for Professional Teaching
    Standards certification process. This process affords participants
    an opportunity to reflect upon their practice. The Department has
    included this certification as a means for meeting one of the
    requirements for the Professional teaching license in Massachusetts.
    Through the National Board Program, the Department administers
    application subsidy funds, giving teachers in high-need schools
    priority to receive those funds.

-   *Master Teacher Program.* Through the Massachusetts Master Teacher
    Program, the Department has developed a cadre of accomplished
    teachers who have participated in the National Board for
    Professional Teaching Standards certification process and who choose
    to mentor in their district. These individuals receive a
    state-funded salary bonus for participation in the program.
    Annually, the Department provides approximately 270 of these bonuses
    to program participants -- many who teach in high need urban
    districts. In addition to the salary bonus, these individuals are
    recognized by their schools and districts as invaluable teacher
    leaders, and call upon these individuals to lend their expertise in
    a wide variety of areas.

**5. [Professional Development]{.underline}**

The Massachusetts Department of Education has a historical commitment to
encouraging and supporting the professional development and growth of
educators in the field. The Department has and will continue to support
programs and initiatives that strengthen the skills, knowledge, and
qualifications of teachers already working in high-poverty,
low-performing schools.

-   *District Professional Development Plan Requirement.* The
    Massachusetts Education Reform Act of 1993 requires all school
    districts to annually develop a professional development plan for
    all principals, teachers, other professional staff employed by the
    district, and school council members. Districts are strongly
    encouraged to connect professional development with continuous
    district- and school-improvement planning and to connect their
    district professional development plan to the School Improvement
    plans that are also required through the Education Reform Act. This
    connection is strengthened by
    [relicensure](http://www.doe.mass.edu/lawsregs/603cmr44.html), which
    requires educators to have professional development plans that are
    in line with school and/or district improvement plans. While the
    [relicensure](http://www.doe.mass.edu/lawsregs/603cmr44.html)
    regulations outline minimum requirements for professional
    development, the Department encourages educators to participate in
    professional experiences that support and expand their content and
    professional skills *beyond* the minimum requirements. Accordingly,
    districts may choose to offer additional incentives, through
    collective bargaining, for educators to go beyond the minimum
    requirements for recertification and to continue to participate in
    professionally-relevant and academically-meaningful professional
    development.

-   *Massachusetts Relicensure Requirements.* The Commonwealth\'s
    relicensure/recertification regulations require individuals with a
    Massachusetts Professional license to engage in sustained
    professional development that strengthens professional knowledge and
    skills relevant to their licenses. The Massachusetts Department of
    Education has designed a recertification process that requires all
    educators to prepare an Individual Professional Development Plan for
    each five-year renewal cycle. Educators must obtain 150 professional
    development points in each five-year cycle; 120 of those points must
    focus on the content/pedagogy of the license, and a minimum of 90 of
    the 120 points must be focused on the content of the license. The
    plan must be consistent with the educational needs of the school
    and/or district, and enhance the ability of the educator to improve
    student learning.

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-   *Content Institutes.* For the past eleven years, Massachusetts has
    offered content institutes to educators free of charge during the
    summer months. Over 12,000 educators have participated in these
    institutes since 1995, and over 800 educators participate annually.
    These content institutes provide interested educators with free,
    graduate-level professional development that is designed to increase
    the content knowledge of participants. These professional
    development opportunities are offered in many of the core academic
    subjects. Content Institute providers are selected based on rigorous
    selection criteria, and priority is first given to science
    offerings, and then mathematics, english language arts and the arts.
    Participant priority is given to teachers who are in need of
    becoming "highly qualified" in specific content areas and those who
    teach in "high need" districts.

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-   *Title IIA SAHE Grants.* The Massachusetts Board of Higher Education
    has awarded competitive grants to 19 partnerships using federal
    Title IIA funding. Each funded partnership includes institutions of
    higher education and high-need school districts. Funds will be used
    to conduct professional development activities in core academic
    subjects to ensure that teachers, paraprofessionals, and principals
    have subject matter knowledge and computer-related technology
    experience to enhance student learning. The program is designed to
    raise student achievement in the core academic subjects, through
    activities that improve teaching and learning, and increase the
    number of highly qualified teachers and principals.

***\*\*\*Many of the programs outlined in the section below are also
professional development opportunities that the Department is offering
to strengthen the skills, knowledge, and qualifications of teachers
already working in high-poverty, low-performing schools.***

**6. [Specialized Knowledge and Skills]{.underline}**

> Below are specific programs/services that the Department has and will
> offer to ensure that teachers have the specialized knowledge and
> skills they need to be effective with the populations of students
> typically served in high-poverty, low-performing schools (including
> Native American students, English language learners, and other
> students at risk):

-   *Professional Standards for Teachers and Pre-service Performance
    Assessment.* Included in the Massachusetts Regulations for Licensure
    are the Professional Standards for Teachers. These Standards define
    the pedagogical and other professional knowledge and skills required
    of all teachers across the state. These Standards are used by;
    teacher preparation providers in preparing their candidates; the
    Department in reviewing programs seeking state approval; and by the
    Department as the basis of performance assessments of candidates.
    Candidates demonstrate that they meet the Professional Standards by
    passing a Performance Assessment for Initial License. The
    Professional Standards include: Plans Curriculum and Instruction,
    Delivers Effective Instruction, Manages Classroom Climate and
    Operation, Promotes Equity, and Meets Professional Responsibilities
    (<http://www.doe.mass.edu/lawsregs/603cmr7.html?section=08>). The
    Department has provided specific guidelines for these Pre-Service
    Performance Assessments, and for each of the Standards:
    http://www.doe.mass.edu/edprep/PPA_guidelines.doc.

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-   *SEI Professional Development Initiative.* In addition, beginning
    with the 2003-2004 school year, districts in Massachusetts have been
    required to implement a state law governing the education of limited
    English proficient (LEP) students. These students are required to
    receive sheltered English immersion (SEI) instruction until they are
    proficient in English. In response to this, the Department has
    developed and will continue to provide targeted professional
    development to ELL teachers. This summer the MA DOE offered four
    opportunities to help districts, charter schools, and educational
    collaboratives build capacity, by training teams of qualified
    individuals to conduct Sheltered English Immersion Professional
    Development in their communities. These opportunities focused on
    Enhancing English Language Learning in Elementary Classrooms,
    Reading and Writing in Secondary Sheltered Content Classrooms and
    Enriching Content Classes for Secondary ESOL Students.

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-   *NASDSE Satellite Conference Series.* The MA DOE Special Education
    Planning and Policy Office has purchased a site license for distance
    learning opportunities from the National Association of State
    Directors of Special Education (NASDSE). The satellite conferences
    are available at no cost to Massachusetts school districts and
    educational organizations. The subjects range from, Getting the Most
    Out of Your Partnerships: Using Knowledge Management and Communities
    of Practice, Making the Grade: Effective High Schools for All
    Students to, Differentiated Reading Instruction: Teaching Every
    Child.

-   *Special Education Improvement Grants.* The MA DOE Office of Special
    Education Policy and Planning offers two types of grant programs to
    school districts and approved special education schools and programs
    to fund professional development activities that will help to
    improve the skills and capacity of special education teachers, and
    providers of related services, to meet the diverse needs of students
    with disabilities. The priority of these two grants is to develop
    district-based induction and mentoring programs and to advance the
    skills of educators involved with students with disabilities through
    professional development activities.

-   *Massachusetts Reading First Initiatives.* The MA DOE's federally
    funded Reading First Program targets high need schools and high-need
    districts. Reading First supports school districts and schools in
    implementing proven scientifically- based methods of reading
    instruction in K-3 classrooms in order to prevent reading
    difficulties, and have all students be proficient readers by the end
    of Grade 3. Currently, forty-one districts and 89 schools are
    participating in the Massachusetts Reading First Plan in the
    2005-2006 school year. Each district is assigned an implementation
    facilitator (IF). The implementation facilitators are members of the
    Massachusetts Department of Education staff who work directly with
    schools to implement Reading First. Among many activities, their
    assistance encompasses the integration of Teacher Reading Academy
    (professional development) content, the implementation of reading
    programs, and the administration and interpretation of assessments.
    In addition to content and instructional expertise, they work to
    transfer their skills in project management, team building, and
    school change. Small teams of IFs work together to provide ongoing,
    sustained professional development through bimonthly regional
    meetings.

-   *John Silber Early Reading Program*. This state-funded program is
    provided to targeted high need districts that did not receive funds
    from the Reading First federally funded program. The John Silber
    Early Reading Program supports thirty-two identified high need
    school districts and thirty-seven high need schools, in implementing
    proven scientifically-based methods of reading instruction in K-3
    classrooms in order to prevent reading difficulties and have all
    students be proficient readers by the end of grade 3.

    7.  **[Working Conditions]{.underline}**

The MA DOE recognizes the impact working conditions have on excessively
high rates of turnover, particularly in hard-to-staff schools. It also
understands the role that school and district leadership plays in
developing and sustaining a working environment that leads to high
student and educator expectations and performance. Below are specific
initiatives that the Department will focus on to improve the conditions
in hard-to-staff schools:

-   *Commonwealth School Leadership Project.* The goal of the
    Commonwealth School Leadership Project is provide educational
    leaders in every school and district in the Commonwealth with the
    knowledge, skills and support they need to help teachers educate all
    students to high standards. Action is needed to change the jobs of
    educational leaders to become more manageable, and to enact policies
    that ensure a qualified leader in every position in districts
    throughout the Commonwealth, especially in those districts with a
    high concentration of low-achieving students. Through a bold and
    comprehensive approach, the project will redefine school leadership,
    building structures and introducing policy to expand the supply of
    qualified and visionary school leaders needed for the 21st century.
    The Project is aimed at assisting state leaders and decision makers
    in redesigning policies needed to strengthen the leadership
    abilities of their superintendents and principals.

-   *National Institute for School Leaders (NISL) Initiative.* The
    Department's NISL Initiative is being offered to educators from some
    of the state's neediest districts in the Commonwealth. The NISL
    initiative, starting in the summer of 2007, is an intensive two-year
    training program, aimed at strengthening the districts'
    organizational and instructional leadership skills to lead their
    schools to higher student achievement, including addressing issues
    related to working conditions. The program is being offered by the
    Department of Education in conjunction with the Urban
    Superintendents Network, and is part of the state's educator
    leadership agenda.

-   *School Accountability and Targeted Assistance.* Forty-eight percent
    of the high poverty schools are also schools that are not making
    AYP. The Massachusetts Department of Education's Accountability and
    Targeted Assistance Center will assist these schools to improve the
    conditions within the schools that lead to high teacher turnover, as
    well as other teacher quality issues that lead to poor student
    achievement. As part of the MA DOE's accountability system, these
    schools will participate in panel reviews, fact-finding reviews,
    improvement planning and targeted initiatives provided by Department
    liaisons, along with school support specialists. These efforts will
    assist schools with; 1) the diagnosis of the school\'s strengths,
    and areas for improvement by focusing on the causes / reasons for
    low student performance (including teacher quality issues and
    working conditions); and 2) development of strategies, and a plan to
    address those areas for improvement. Throughout this process, these
    schools will receive ongoing MA DOE oversight and support during
    implementation, including regular periodic visits by DOE staff to
    the school, during which time DOE staff will meet with leaders and
    staff and observe planned initiatives underway in the school and the
    classroom.

    -   *Urban Superintendents Network.* The Urban Superintendents
        Network is a group of urban district superintendents (mostly
        from districts that have schools that aren't meeting AYP) that
        meets monthly to share ideas, concerns and solutions to a
        variety of issues that arise. The meetings are held by the
        Department and provide the MA DOE with an opportunity to provide
        targeted assistance to urban superintendents who have a variety
        of challenges, including those related to recruiting and
        retaining highly qualified teachers. The MA DOE will continue
        working with these urban superintendents to address specific
        issues that arise in relation to improving student achievement,
        including improving working conditions in hard-to-staff schools.

    -   *Distributed Leadership.* We are finding that district planning
        for improving student performance, along with the logistics of
        running a school, are crowding out some of the most important
        teacher quality components of their jobs, such as providing
        support to new and veteran teachers (including induction and
        mentoring), and teacher selection and assignment, to name just a
        few. Because of the magnitude of these functions, and the
        sensitivities associated with many of them, they cannot and
        should not be accomplished by the principal alone. Rather, they
        are *led, supervised, and coordinated* by the principal, who, in
        a distributed leadership model, works with staff at all levels
        to provide opportunities for leadership and skills development
        while ensuring the best possible outcomes for student
        achievement. The Department is exploring options to provide
        additional support to principals, many of whom are responsible
        alone for faculties of 40 to 60 teachers.

8.  **[Policy Coherence]{.underline}**

The Department will continue to improve internal processes and state
policies that may inadvertently contribute to local staffing inequities.
In the coming year, the Department will:

-   *Limit the Scope of the Utilization of the State's 20% Rule*: The
    Department will limit the use of the 20% rule as outlined in Section
    3 of this document.

-   *Limit the Granting of Teacher Licensure Waivers:* Districts that
    have less than 97% of their core academic teachers designated as
    highly qualified for two or more consecutive years after the end of
    the 2006/2007 school year will be required to submit an updated
    Teacher Quality Improvement Plan, target their Title IIA funds
    toward achieving 100% HQT, and denied access to the automated
    licensure waiver request process; they will instead be required to
    submit a detailed rationale for each waiver requested and obtain
    specific written approval from the Commissioner.

-   *Continue Collaboration with the Educational Personnel Advisory
    Council (EPAC).* EPAC advises the Commissioner and the Board of
    Education on issues pertaining to all educational personnel. The
    Department will continue to meet monthly with the Council to garner
    feedback from the field regarding policy development and
    implementation related to teacher preparation, licensure and quality
    policies and initiatives. This council is comprised of
    representatives from each of the professional teacher and
    administrator associations in the Commonwealth, school districts,
    institutions of higher education, higher education organizations and
    Massachusetts Association of School Personnel Administrators. The
    current focus is on accountability and support for educator quality
    at every level, specifically in the areas of recruitment and
    retention, induction and mentoring, preparation program approval,
    and resources for educators. This council is a forum to discuss
    implementation issues related to MA DOE policy.

-   *Streamline the Licensure Process.* The licensure process will be
    streamlined through revisions to the *Massachusetts Regulations for
    Educator Licensure and Preparation Program Approval*. The
    modifications will maintain the content requirements of the
    regulations, while eliminating barriers to recruiting, preparing,
    and retaining high quality educators in all of the Commonwealth's
    classrooms.

-   *Propose and Implement Changes to the School and District
    Accountability System.* In the course of implementing the school and
    district accountability system during its first six years, the
    Department's capacity to identify and provide support to improve
    underperforming schools has expanded considerably. Through this
    work, important professional relationships between state and
    district leaders have been formed, and work processes have evolved
    and matured.

> At the June Massachusetts Board of Education meeting, the Department
> proposed amendments to the Regulations on Under-Performing Schools and
> Districts, 603 CMR 2.00. The proposed amendments will simplify and
> shorten the process for identifying and providing state assistance to
> underperforming schools, clarify expectations regarding the kinds of
> improvement actions that schools and districts must take, and
> establish different levels and types of intervention appropriate to
> each situation. The Board voted to solicit public comment on the
> proposed amendments, which the Commissioner will bring back to the
> Board for a final vote in October.

-   *Pilot a New Educator Database.* Additionally, the statewide
    implementation of Educator Personnel Information Management Systems
    (EPIMS) during the 2007-2008 school year will enable the Department
    to analyze equity issues on a granular level. It will also provide
    the Department with a systematic and quantitative means of
    monitoring the implementation of policies that affect educator
    recruitment, preparation, HQ status, licensure, assignment, and
    retention.

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-   *Explore Performance-Based Compensation Systems.* The Department
    will continue to explore how it can leverage funds and build support
    for the implementation of a performance-based compensation system in
    the Commonwealth.

-   *Adopt and Implement a New Strategic Plan.* The Department's new
    strategic plan entitled, *Framework for Leadership and Action,*
    outlines how the Department will work more strategically to carry
    out its current work. This work includes improving student
    achievement and educator quality in working with high need schools
    and districts. The plan provides a structure and focus to ensure
    that policies are having their intended affect and internal
    processes are streamlined so as not to adversely impact the field.

## [Conclusion]{.underline}

> The Department pledges its commitment to the strategies, programs,
> policies and ideas outlined in this plan. The Commonwealth has built a
> successful tradition of excellence in relation to educator quality
> throughout the state. There is, however, a great deal more that can
> and should be done in the area of educator quality as it relates to
> our at-risk students throughout the State. This plan will enable the
> Department to address and recognize success for those students.