RECOGNIZING EDUCATIONAL SUCCESS,

PROFESSIONAL EXCELLENCE,

AND COLLABORATIVE TEACHING.

A Blueprint f R.E.S.P.E.C.T.

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

APRIL 2013

A Blueprint for R.E.S.P.E.C.T.

RECOGNIZING EDUCATIONAL SUCCESS, 

PROFESSIONAL EXCELLENCE 

AND COLLABORATIVE TEACHING

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

APRIL 2013

iii

CONTENTS

I. Education at a Crossroads. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

II. Developing a New Vision of Teaching and Leading. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

III. A Policy Framework for Transforming Teaching and Leading: Seven Critical Components. . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

IV. Laying the Foundation for RESPECT. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

V. Next Steps. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Appendix A- Current Policy by Critical Component. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Appendix B- RESPECT Grant Competition Overview. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Appendix C- STEM Master Teacher Corps Overview. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Appendix D- Envisioning a Teaching Profession for the 21st Century. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Bibliography. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
“The time is ripe for teachers to reclaim our ideals 

and change our profession.”

—Teacher, New Mexico
1

I. EDUCATION AT A CROSSROADS

Every child in America deserves a high-quality education that prepares her or him for college, a career, and the 

responsibilities of citizenship. Teachers and school leaders 

work each day with our nation’s children to provide them 

with the knowledge, skills, and habits to succeed professionally and personally, and to give them an array of tools 

for leading productive and satisfying lives. 

Indeed, educators are the heart and soul of American 

education. Great teachers and principals are drawn to the 

profession because they want to nurture young people 

and watch them grow—not only academically, but also 

socially and emotionally. They teach because of their 

belief in the power of education to transform lives. Strong 

teachers can boost students’ academic achievement, 

improve their attitudes about school and themselves, 

and increase their ability to learn. Highly effective teachers accelerate student learning, close achievement gaps 

that have persisted for decades, and build habits of mind 

that change the trajectories of students’ lives, resulting in 

lower dropout rates, lower rates of teen pregnancy, and 

greater lifetime earnings and career satisfaction.1

 And 

strong school leaders enable effective teachers to grow 

and thrive.2

Yet—despite their hard work and commitment—educators know that their students are confronting unprecedented challenges and heightened competition in an 

increasingly knowledge-based, global job market. At 

the same time, on international assessments of student 

achievement, U.S. performance has been mediocre. 

According to the 2009 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), an instrument comparing the 

performance of 15-year-olds in 34 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) member 

countries, American students rank 14th in reading, 17th in 

science, and 25th in math. Twenty years ago, the U.S. led 

1 Chetty, R., Friedman, J.N., & Rockoff, J.E., National Bureau of Economic 

Research (December 2011). The Long-term Impacts of Teachers: 

Teacher Value-Added and Student Outcomes in Adulthood. Working 

Paper 17699. Retrieved from http://obs.rc.fas.harvard.edu/chetty/

value_added.pdf.

2 McKinsey & Co. (2010). Closing the Talent Gap: Attracting and 

Retaining Top-Third Graduates to Careers in Teaching. Retrieved from 

http://

mckinseyonsociety.com/downloads/reports/Education/Closing_the_

talent_gap.pdf.

the world in college completion, but in 2011, as many as 

13 countries outpaced us.3

Within our own borders, a significant number of students 

are still not getting the education they deserve. Only 78 

percent of students complete high school in four years, 

and even fewer African-Americans (66 percent) and Latinos (71 percent) graduate on time.4 Right now, more than 

60 percent of U.S. jobs require some form of higher education; yet almost one out of every four young adults cannot even begin to compete for these jobs.5

 At a time when 

jobs requiring only a high school diploma are increasingly 

scarce and fail to offer a pathway into the middle class,6

too many students—especially those on the wrong side of 

our nation’s persistent achievement gaps—are simply not 

getting what they need to succeed.

Though well aware of the challenges, many teachers and 

principals remain cautiously optimistic. For them, the 

current situation provides a unique opportunity to rethink 

the existing systems that have not been meeting our nation’s educational goals. “It is time for sweeping changes 

to education,” a teacher in North Carolina told us. The 

American education system is situated at a historic 

crossroads where we have the ability to continue on our 

current trajectory or to chart a new course. “This is our 

Moon Landing moment,” a principal in Virginia said, urging her colleagues to take advantage of the opportunity to 

do something remarkable. 

Some countries have taken on education as a national 

mission. Canada, China, and Singapore have renewed 

3 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. (2012) 

Education at a Glance 2012: OECD Indicators.. (2012) Retrieved from 

http://www.uis.unesco.org/Education/Documents/oecd-eag-2012-

en.pdf.

4 U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics.(2013) Public School Graduates and Dropouts from the Common 

Core of Data: School Year 2009–10: First Look (Provisional Data), 

“Public high school number of graduates and Averaged Freshmen 

Graduation Rate (AFGR), by race/ethnicity and state or jurisdiction: 

School year 2009–10.” Retrieved from http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/

pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2013309.

5 Carnevale, A., Smith, N., & Strohl, J. (2010) Help Wanted: Projections 

of Jobs and Education Requirements Through 2018. Retrieved from 

http://www9.georgetown.edu/grad/gppi/hpi/cew/pdfs/FullReport.pdf.

6 Carnevale, A. , Rose, S., & Cheah, B. The College Payoff: Education, 

Occupations, Lifetime Earnings. (2011) Retrieved from http://www9.

georgetown.edu/grad/gppi/hpi/cew/pdfs/collegepayoff-complete.pdf.
2

commitments and revised their education strategies in 

recent decades in ways that are bearing fruit.7 President 

Obama has made education a priority in his administration and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has said 

that “Accelerating college attainment is not just a policy . 

. . it is really an urgent national mission.” That is why the 

president has set a goal that, by 2020, the United States 

will once again lead the world in college completion. 

Teachers and principals also have ambitious goals for 

their students that extend beyond helping our country 

compete in the world and advance economically. “I’m 

teaching for more than the global standing of the United 

States of America,” a teacher in San Francisco reminded 

us. “The call to civics, ethics, and morality is incredibly 

important.” 

To achieve all of these goals, it is essential that accomplished, effective teachers guide every student’s learning 

and that schools are collaborative and innovative workplaces where teachers and leaders have the capacity to 

improve student outcomes and close achievement gaps. 

Working to ensure that this is true in all of our schools is 

an audacious, but vital, undertaking that requires us to 

fundamentally transform education in this country. 

To begin, we must acknowledge that educators in the 

United States should be treated as members of a highly 

regarded profession. Other respected professions—accounting, medicine, engineering, and law, to name a 

few—share attributes that are conspicuously absent from 

education. They set high standards for entry into the 

field and insist on strong preparation before licensure or 

certification. Most professions provide career opportuni7 OECD. “Strong Performers and Successful Reformers in Education: 

Lessons from PISA for the United States.” (2011) Retrieved from 

http://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/education/lessons-from-pisa-for-theunited-states_9789264096660-en.

ties for practitioners to 

specialize and to advance 

into leadership positions. 

Highly regarded professions offer competitive 

compensation and reward 

professionals for their accomplishments. In short, 

as educators themselves 

tell us, to transform our 

education system, we 

have to treat teachers and 

school leaders as professionals whose work is 

intellectually demanding, 

complex and important, 

and we have to hold them 

to high standards because they are entrusted with our 

nation’s most valuable resource, our children.

As American educators work within schools, districts, and 

states to reshape their profession, they caution against 

two common reform errors: putting too much burden on 

any one element of the system to solve all of our nation’s education problems, and implementing piecemeal 

strategies in an ad hoc, uncoordinated way. Instead, we 

must take a comprehensive, integrated, and long-term 

approach to transformation, drawing on lessons from 

higher-performing countries and from the hundreds of 

schools across this country whose students excel academically despite significant challenges. 

Of course, the work of transforming the profession cannot be shouldered by our nation’s teachers and principals 

alone. That is why this Blueprint for Recognizing Educational 

Success, Professional Excellence and Collaborative Teaching

(RESPECT) is a framework for all of us—parents, students, 

educators, policymakers, business and community leaders, 

elected officials, and other partners—to use in guiding our 

collective efforts to strengthen America’s public education 

system by rethinking teaching and leading. 

Below we describe the collaborations and voices that 

shaped this blueprint, lay out the seven critical components that compose the RESPECT policy framework, connect this new framework with existing policy, and outline 

the next steps necessary to turn the RESPECT vision into 

reality. 
3

II. DEVELOPING A NEW VISION OF 

TEACHING AND LEADING

Recently, individuals and organizations from across the 

field of education have increasingly called for a similar 

set of ambitious, comprehensive, and transformative 

improvements to the teaching profession. The work of a 

number of national organizations embraces shared notions of what must be done to advance the profession, 

including the work of the American Association of School 

Administrators (AASA), the American Federation of 

Teachers (AFT), the Council of Chief State School Officers 

(CCSSO), the Council of the Great City Schools (CGCS), 

the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS), 

the National Education Association (NEA), and the National School Board Association (NSBA).8

Inspired by this growing consensus among leading national organizations, and an opportunity to focus on and 

galvanize the dialogue around teaching and leading, the 

U.S. Department of Education committed to developing 

a responsive and robust policy framework for transforming the profession—a policy framework supported by 

research and informed by the voices of teachers and 

school leaders nationwide. In developing this framework, 

the Department reviewed the relevant literature (see 

Bibliography) and engaged educational leadership at all 

levels in a collaborative dialogue. The Department, often 

with partners, hosted a series of convenings to crystalize consensus and inspire collaborative action around 

it, including two first-of-their-kind conferences: one on 

labor-management collaboration9 in February 2011 that 

has been held annually since; the other, the International 

8 This includes a report written by the NEA’s Commission on Effective Teachers and Teaching and the resulting NEA Action Agenda, 

the AFT’s Quality Education Agenda, the joint work of the AASA, 

AFT, NEA, and NSBA on the Guiding Principles for Teacher Incentive 

Compensation Plans, and the AFT and AASA’s initiatives on teacher 

development and evaluation.

9 In February 2011, the Department convened a first-of-its-kind conference on Advancing Student Achievement through Labor-Management 

Collaboration in partnership with the AASA, AFT, NEA, NSBA, CGCS, 

and FMCS. Together these co-sponsoring organizations put forth 

A New Compact for Student Success and developed 10 principles of 

labor-management collaboration that addressed, among other things, 

the way that teachers are supported, compensated, evaluated, and 

engaged in strategic planning and decision-making.

Summit on the Teaching Profession,10 first held in March 

2011 and now an annual event. 

At the same time, the Department undertook an extensive effort to seek input directly from educators by 

initiating a national conversation on the teaching profession and hosting roundtable conversations with teachers 

and leaders across the country. To help frame the national 

conversation and inform future policy, the Department 

took on the challenge of depicting a new vision of teaching, leading, and learning—a vision unconstrained and 

unprejudiced by the limits of today’s reality and guided 

solely by what the U.S. education system must accomplish in order to remain globally competitive, and provide 

students with the skills and knowledge necessary to succeed in their careers and in their lives. In developing and 

drafting this vision, the Department engaged educators 

and organizations at the local, state, national, and international levels in a deep discussion about the teaching 

profession.

Beginning in summer 2011, the Department’s Teaching 

Ambassador Fellows (active classroom teachers who work 

with the Department of Education for one year) reached 

out to schools, districts, and teacher networks to conduct 

roundtable discussions about a new vision for teaching and 

leading (see Appendix D: The RESPECT Project Discussion 

Document). Their outreach was not only geographically 

diverse but also included teachers in a wide variety of content areas, roles, and levels of experience. 

In February 2012, Secretary Duncan officially launched 

The RESPECT Project: A National Conversation about the 

Teaching Profession and the Department redoubled its 

efforts to engage the field. Teachers and leaders across 

the nation were invited to join in local conversations on 

a vision for the profession, comment on it online, or lead 

10 In March 2011, the Department hosted a second conference that 

brought the conversation to the international stage. The International 

Summit on the Teaching Profession was convened in collaboration 

with the OECD and Education International. The Department attended the summit with the NEA, AFT, and CCSSO, and together they 

shared and learned from the best practices of other high-performing 

countries. Based on the success of the first summit, the United States 

hosted a second one in March 2012, where leaders explored in depth 

concepts like developing school leaders, preparing teachers for the 

delivery of 21st-century skills, and preparing teachers to work and 

succeed where they are needed most.
4

their own discussions using the RESPECT Project tool 

kit prepared by the Department as a resource.11 In each 

conversation, educators—including principals, school 

counselors, current and preservice teachers, and education professors—viewed the most recent iteration of the 

Department’s vision statement and provided honest and 

wide-ranging feedback on what they would retain, add, or 

eliminate. 

As of February 2013, the RESPECT Project had engaged 

more than 5,700 educators in the national conversation 

through more than 360 roundtables across the U.S. The 

result was a new vision for teaching and leading reflective 

of the insights, ideas, and expertise of educators in the 

field. In the words of one Maryland teacher, “This is how 

you respect me. Ask me what I think and listen to what I 

have to say.” Today these conversations continue to take 

place with a new focus on how all stakeholders can help 

to realize the RESPECT vision in their unique school and 

community setting.

11 The Department’s RESPECT Project tool kit is available at http://www.

ed.gov/teaching/national-conversation.

In May 2012, the Department was joined by AASA, AFT, 

CGCS, NEA, NSBA, FMCS, and CCSSO in hosting a second conference on labor-management collaboration that 

convened both district and state leaders to focus exclusively on Collaborating to Transform the Teaching Profession. In preparing for the conference, the co-sponsoring 

organizations assembled their best thinking on what is 

needed to truly transform the teaching profession. For the 

Department, this thinking was directly informed by its 

work on the RESPECT Project and by feedback received 

from educators through the roundtables. The outcome 

of this collaborative endeavor was a new, jointly drafted 

statement for transforming the profession signed by each 

organization. For the first time, national groups representing teachers, superintendents, school boards, and 

state leaders put forth a common vision for teaching and 

leading. Today this joint statement forms the backbone of 

the Department’s RESPECT policy framework. The statement’s seven critical components for transforming the 

teaching profession are laid out below. 
5

III. A POLICY FRAMEWORK FOR TRANSFORMING TEACHING 

AND LEADING: SEVEN CRITICAL COMPONENTS

The shared vision emerging from the conference on 

Collaborating to Transform the Teaching Profession is 

composed of seven critical components of a transformed 

education profession: shared responsibility and leadership, recruitment and preparation, growth and development, evaluation, compensation and advancement, school 

climate, and community engagement. Educators consistently identified these components as critical to transforming the profession and characteristic of the highestperforming school systems in the U.S. and abroad. A 

strong education system effectively fuses these components to build one comprehensive and coherent system. 

THE SEVEN CRITICAL COMPONENTS OF A 

TRANSFORMED PROFESSION

1. A Culture of Shared Responsibility and Leadership:

In a transformed 

profession, educators take collective ownership for student 

learning; structures of shared 

decision-making 

and open-door 

practice provide educators with the collaborative autonomy to 

do what is best for each student; and the profession 

takes upon itself the responsibility for ensuring that

high standards of practice are met. In this professional culture, teachers and principals together make 

the primary decisions about educator selection, assignment, evaluation, dismissal, and career advancement—with student learning at the center of all such 

decisions.

2. Top Talent, Prepared for Success: Students with 

effective teachers perform at higher levels; students 

have higher graduation rates, higher college-going 

rates, higher levels of civic participation, and higher 

lifetime earnings. Thus, attracting a high-performing 

and diverse pool 

of talented 

individuals 

to become 

teachers and 

principals is a 

critical priority – whether these are new graduates or 

career switchers, and whether they enter the profession through traditional or alternative pathways. We 

must support the programs that prepare highly effective educators and offer high-quality and substantive 

curricula and clinical preparation experiences. We 

should expand the most successful programs, help 

other programs improve, and close down the lowestperforming programs if they fail to improve after 

receiving support. Preparation should include significant clinical opportunities that involve highly effective teachers or principals to oversee, mentor, and 

evaluate aspiring educators (preferably in the school 

environments in which the candidates will ultimately 

work). Further, aspiring educators must meet a high 

“We need more rigorous teacher 

preparation programs.”

—Pre-service Teacher, Ill.

In Finland, teachers are recruited from the top 20 

percent of high school graduates. However, it’s 

not enough for candidates to be academically 

gifted—they also have to demonstrate, through 

a series of interviews and a simulated teaching activity, that they have other traits essential 

to good teaching, such as communication and 

social skills.

“In a school culture where 

teacher work and leadership 

are valued and sought by school 

leaders, teachers work harder, 

better, and more purposefully.” 

—Teacher, Allendale, N.J.
6

bar for entering the profession, demonstrating strong 

knowledge in the content they teach; have mastered 

a repertoire of instructional strategies and know 

when to use each appropriately; have the dispositions and aptitudes to work effectively with students 

and with colleagues; and be learners themselves 

who know how to plan purposefully, analyze student 

learning outcomes, reflect on their own practice, and 

adjust as needed. 

3. Continuous Growth and Professional Development: 

Effective teachers and principals are career-long 

learners. Effective schools and districts are learning 

communities where teachers and principals individually 

and collaboratively continuously reflect on and 

improve practice. Such communities of practice thrive 

when there is structured time for collaborative work 

informed by a rich array of data and access to internal 

and external 

expertise. We 

must take 

seriously the 

need to evaluate 

the efficacy of 

professional 

development 

so that we 

can more methodically improve it, channeling our 

investments into activities and supports that make 

a difference. From induction for novice teachers 

designed to accelerate their growth and development, 

to replicating the practices of the most accomplished 

“To be an effective teacher, 

[there are] certain nonnegotiable pieces....there are 

things that you need to be 

doing—practice it, work on it.”

—Teacher, Denver, Colo.

teachers, professional development is a critical lever 

of improvement. As a profession, we must develop 

greater competency in using it.

In Shanghai, teachers frequently observe each 

other and participate in daily, subject-based 

“teaching-study groups.” New teachers observe 

more experienced teachers to learn from them, 

and senior teachers observe other teachers to 

mentor them. 

4. Effective Teachers and Principals: Effective educators have high standards of professional practice and 

demonstrate their ability to improve student learning. Thus, effectiveness must be evaluated based on 

measures of student academic growth, evidence from 

classroom and school practice, and contributions to 

colleagues and the school community. The results of 

the evaluations 

should guide 

professional 

support and 

development, 

and inform personnel decisions 

such as teacher 

and principal 

assignments, the granting of professional status (e.g., 

tenure), promotion to leadership roles, and dismissal 

for those who, despite receiving support, are ineffective. Good evaluation systems should provide 

“We need an evaluation system 

that ensures that the profession 

is a respectable one, with quality 

teachers being retained to teach 

the students who need us most.”

—Teacher, Centreville, Md.
7

feedback to educators from both colleagues and 

supervisors that is meaningful, credible, timely, and 

actionable, and should use evidence-based processes 

that are fair, accurate, and transparent.

5. A Professional Career Continuum With Competitive Compensation: Educators are one of our nation’s 

most valuable resources. We must create a profession that attracts great people into our schools and 

classrooms—and keeps them in the profession. To do 

this, we need to offer educators career pathways that 

provide opportunities for increasingly responsible 

roles, whether they choose to stay in the classroom, 

become instructional leaders 

or move into 

administration. 

And these roles 

must be coupled 

with compensation that is 

high enough to 

attract and retain a highly skilled workforce; reflects 

the effectiveness, expertise, and contributions of each 

educator; and is consistent with the societal regard 

accorded to comparable professions

6. Conditions for Successful Teaching and Learning: 

High-functioning systems can amplify the accomplishments of their educators, but a dysfunctional 

school or district can undermine the impact of even 

the best teachers. We need schools and districts 

whose climates and 

cultures, use 

of time, approaches to 

staffing, use 

of technology, 

deployment 

of support 

services, and 

“I love the classroom, but I need 

opportunities to advance that 

aren’t taking me away from 

being in the classroom.” 

—Teacher, Reno, Nev.

In Singapore, the Ministry of Education tracks 

the starting salaries of other professions and 

adjusts teaching salaries to ensure that teaching is just as attractive to new graduates. 

Effective teachers in Singapore can also significantly increase their salaries by earning retention and performance bonuses, and taking 

on new roles as they advance through a wellarticulated career ladder. 

“[We need time] ... to really 

collaborate ... restructure and 

reassess ... This is the one way we 

are going to make a difference. 

It’s all about the time.” 

—NASSP Assistant Principal 

of the Year
8

engagement of families and communities are optimized to continuously improve outcomes for the students they serve. Further, we must be prepared to get 

the best teachers and principals to the highest-need 

students (including low-income students, minority 

students, English learners, and students with disabilities), and to ensure that all students have access to 

the other resources (such as technology, instructional 

materials, and social, health, and nutritional services) 

necessary to support their academic success.

7. Engaged Communities: Finally, no community can 

flourish unless its children are safe, healthy, wellnourished, and well-educated; and no school can be 

a strong pillar of a thriving community without deep 

community 

responsibility for 

and ownership 

of the school’s 

academic success. Thus, 

recognizing that 

the fate of communities and their schools are inextricably linked, we must make schools stronger by 

educators embracing community resources, expertise, and activities; and we must make communities 

stronger by anchoring them around highly effective 

schools. 

Working in concert, these seven critical components are 

essential for establishing a profession of educators who 

are recruited, selected, developed, supported, compensated, and treated with the respect necessary to ensure 

that our students grow into educated, productive, and 

engaged citizens.

“We must all be active, 

supportive participants in the 

21st-century education model.” 

—Teacher, Orlando, Fla.
9

IV. LAYING THE FOUNDATION FOR RESPECT

Over the past four years this administration has begun 

laying the foundation for RESPECT, including by making 

some progress on the seven critical elements set forth 

in this blueprint. President Obama and Secretary Duncan recognize that accomplished, effective teachers and 

school leaders are at the heart of our education system. 

Their commitment and capacity are essential for ensuring that our students thrive in our continuously changing 

global marketplace. For that reason, this administration 

has been committed from the start to a systemic approach that incents states and districts to develop and 

support educators, and provide them with the tools and 

conditions necessary to improve, succeed, and maximize 

their impact on student learning. 

In 2010, the president laid out this approach in his 

proposal to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary 

Education Act of 1965, as amended (ESEA). The proposal, 

called the “Blueprint for Reform,” focuses on the importance of great teachers and leaders, and proposes strategies for building the comprehensive systems that must be 

in place for the profession to address the challenges faced 

by today’s students. It asserts that in order to prepare 

more students to graduate from high school college- and 

career-ready, we must invest in each of the critical elements of our education system, including data systems, 

standards and assessments, and teachers and school 

leaders. Likewise, to transform the education profession, 

we must invest in each of its critical elements, including educator recruitment, preparation, development, and 

advancement. 

With this fundamental frame in mind, we have committed to an approach that promotes alignment across 

district and state systems. This means that our federal 

programs and initiatives are advancing a consistent set 

of policies around the education profession. The result is 

the creation of programs like Race to the Top (RTT) and 

the Teacher Incentive Fund (TIF), and initiatives like ESEA 

flexibility. These efforts are all aligned in their support for 

district and state efforts to focus their evaluation systems 

on what students must know and be able to do, and thus 

on what teachers and leaders must accomplish in the 

classroom to improve student learning. This work at the 

federal level supports and encourages investments in the 

critical building blocks necessary to make the RESPECT 

vision a reality, including performance-based compensation structures and career ladders, data systems to inform 

professional development and human capital management, pipelines for attracting new talent into the profession, time and structures for collaboration among teachers and school leaders in the service of improving student 

outcomes, and a range of new technologies 

that extend and enhance educators’ impact 

(see Appendix A: Current Policy by Critical 

Component). 

However, it’s time that we move beyond laying the foundation for our education system. 

Following the lead of programs like RTTDistrict (RTT-D), the TIF 2012 competition, 

Promise Neighborhoods, and ESEA flexibility, 

the RESPECT vision calls on districts and 

states that have successfully laid a foundation for systemic solutions to build on that 

base by transforming the education profession into one that unleashes the inherent 

joy in teaching and learning, nurtures the 

creativity and innovation in our schools and 

classrooms, and delivers the outcomes that 

our children deserve and our country’s future 

demands. 
10

V. NEXT STEPS

As evidenced by the diverse work of the schools, districts, and states currently touched by the Department’s 

programs, there will be no single pathway to implementing the elements of this vision. Instead, the solutions are 

likely to be as rich and varied as the districts, schools, 

principals, and teachers who implement them. The goal, 

however, remains the same: that every student exits high 

school prepared for postsecondary study, informed citizenship, and workforce participation. We will continue to 

judge our success in transforming teaching and leading by 

the student outcomes we seek, specifically: 

1. High levels of student achievement, judged by 

multiple measures that assess students’ ability to 

understand and apply the knowledge and skills that 

matter most to their readiness for college, careers, 

and citizenship; 

2. Increased equity, judged by continuously narrowing 

the gaps in achievement and opportunity between 

more- and less-privileged populations of students; 

and 

3. Increased global competitiveness, judged by American students’ academic performance on internationally benchmarked measures. 

Though we have made increasing efforts as a country 

to improve these outcomes, our current strategies and 

investments are not comprehensive enough to produce 

the degree of change required. We call the elements 

of the RESPECT policy framework critical components 

because the success of any one component is inextricably linked to the success of the others. For example, we 

cannot expect educators to solve today’s increasingly 

complex and demanding educational challenges if we do 

not attract top talent into the profession or if we fail to 

adequately prepare candidates with the skills required to 

succeed. We cannot expect to attract the most talented 

and promising individuals into the field and retain the 

most effective ones until compensation is commensurate 

with the expertise required and the difficulty of the work. 

Increasing compensation and responsibility necessitates a 

meaningful system of evaluation and accountability—one 

connected with achieving results in student outcomes. 
11

But we cannot fairly or reasonably expect educators to 

achieve the necessary results and improve their practice 

without also improving the effectiveness of professional 

development and providing access to technology, instructional tools, and other resources. Finally, we know from 

experience that without appropriate school conditions 

and broader community support, even the most committed and effective teachers and leaders cannot sustain 

their efforts in the most challenging environments. The 

absence of any one of these critical components creates 

real impediments to the success of the teaching profession; in contrast, when all of these elements are in place, 

our nation’s teachers and school leaders will meet and 

exceed goals we have set for student success in the 21st 

century. 

Recognizing the need for comprehensive reform over 

piecemeal solutions, in February 2012, President Obama 

committed to making the RESPECT vision for transforming the teaching profession into a reality for our nation. 

To jump-start this process, he proposed investing $5 billion in a RESPECT initiative. The Department of Education would use these funds to award grants to states and 

consortia of districts to pursue comprehensive reforms 

that align with the critical components (see Appendix B: 

RESPECT Grant Competition Overview). In July 2012, the 

president further committed to spend a portion of the 

funds the administration requested for the RESPECT initiative to recognize and reward outstanding pre-K–12 science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) 

teachers by way of a new, national STEM Master Teacher 

Corps (see Appendix C: STEM Master Teacher Corps 

Overview). While awaiting funding from Congress to 

launch the RESPECT initiative and build the STEM Master 

Teacher Corps, the Department is committed to continuing to integrate aspects of the critical components of the 

RESPECT initiative into existing programs and policies 

(see Appendix A: Current Policy by Critical Component). 

This blueprint builds on the Department’s framework for 

strengthening the teaching profession going forward. 

Still, the shared vision for transforming teaching and leading embraced by national education organizations and by 

the Obama administration represents only a framework 

for making progress on our country’s most important 

educational goals. For real change—and for the RESPECT 

vision—to truly take root in a decentralized school system 

like ours, local and state educators, elected officials, union 

leaders, and advocates must take up the cause as their 

own and apply the core ideas in the RESPECT vision to 

their unique circumstances. In fact, there are many aspects of the RESPECT vision that can be implemented by 

state and local leaders immediately, without any further 

action on the part of the Department, such as increasing educators’ opportunities for leadership and time for 

collaboration. Moreover, these are changes that we know 

teachers and school leaders are eager to own and drive 

themselves. Though the educational needs of schools 

vary greatly, the dynamics of the profession are strikingly 

similar across districts—regardless of size, location, or demographics. All schools rely on good teachers to achieve 

positive results in the classroom and on strong school 

leaders to create the right conditions for teaching and 

learning. 

Our immediate hope and expectation is that America’s 4 

million active teachers and principals will lead the effort 

to reshape their profession and the future of education 

in America. Our larger hope is that all Americans will 

recognize more than ever the profound and immeasurable contribution of our educators to our students and our 

country. They are the foundation of our national wellbeing and we owe them nothing less than our deepest 

admiration, support, and respect.
12

APPENDIX A 

CURRENT POLICY BY CRITICAL COMPONENT

Our approach to transforming the education profession ultimately aims to meet the challenge faced by our 

students in the emerging global economy, but it begins 

with a profound respect for the lasting effect that accomplished teachers and school leaders have on students’ 

lives as they work to meet that challenge. Below is a 

summary of the way our current policies are laying the 

foundation for RESPECT in each of the seven critical areas 

identified in this blueprint. 

CRITICAL COMPONENT 1: A CULTURE OF SHARED 

RESPONSIBILITY AND LEADERSHIP

•	 For the past two years, the Department has made a 

nationally visible push for collaborative labor-management relationships in its major grant programs, 

including RTT and TIF, as well as in ESEA flexibility. 

All of these programs require approval from or consultation with district stakeholder groups, including 

teachers’ unions.

•	 Recognizing that engaging teachers and principals 

beyond policy “buy in” requires cultivating leadership 

to drive reform from within schools, the Department 

has developed a framework for technical assistance 

that recognizes four stages of educator engagement: 

1) Developing professional knowledge of reformed 

practices; 2) applying professional knowledge to 

classroom practice; 3) collaboratively participating in 

reform efforts; and 4) taking ownership and leading 

reform. 

CRITICAL COMPONENT 2: TOP TALENT, 

PREPARED FOR SUCCESS 

•	 Faced with the retirement of many teachers from 

the baby boom-generation, along with high turnover 

rates among new teachers, our school leaders will 

hire more than a million teachers in the next 10 years. 

To help address this demand, in 2009, the Department began the TEACH campaign, which focused on 

making teaching the career of choice for high-achieving, recent college graduates. Meeting the challenge 

of attracting the next generation of professional 

educators is a substantial civic commitment, and the 

Department is proud that TEACH has become a true 

public-private partnership, anchored by Microsoft’s 

Partners in Learning Network and supported by other 

corporate leaders. 

•	 Given the premium the job market places on students 

with a degree in the fields of science, technology, 

engineering, and mathematics (STEM), we have 

also focused attention on recruiting, preparing, and 

retaining 100,000 new STEM teachers over the next 

10 years. In 2012, the president proposed creating a 

STEM Master Teacher Corps composed of the nation’s highly effective STEM educators. 

•	 Finally, the Department has proposed a systemic 

approach to changing teacher preparation that calls 

for a greater emphasis on the collection and use of 

performance data of graduates of teacher preparation programs (something we are already seeing in 

states that received an RTT grant) and the allocation 

of scholarships, called Presidential Teaching Fellowships, to students in preparation programs with track 

records of success. 

CRITICAL COMPONENT 3: CONTINUOUS 

GROWTH AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT 

•	 Continuous growth and professional development 

of teachers and leaders is important work, but it 

depends on making effective use of student performance and teacher evaluation data. For this reason, 

we are seeing early progress in RTT states, where 

there is a new focus on state and district systems of 

effective, data-informed professional development. 

•	 Improvement is also evident in many districts with 

schools in the School Improvement Grants (SIG) program, which requires relevant, ongoing, high-quality, 

job-embedded professional development. 

•	 Additionally, through ESEA flexibility, states have 

committed to using the results of teacher and principal evaluation systems to help improve instruction 

and guide professional development.
13

CRITICAL COMPONENT 4: EFFECTIVE TEACHERS 

AND PRINCIPALS

•	 Our approach starts with the understanding that, 

among school-related factors, the effectiveness of 

teachers and school leaders has the greatest impact 

on student achievement. 

•	 Since 2009, many of the Department’s initiatives—

including the ESEA reauthorization proposal, ESEA 

flexibility, RTT program, SIG, and the TIF—have 

consistently called for teacher and leader evaluation 

and support systems that use multiple measures of 

effectiveness, including indicators of student growth 

as a significant factor, to develop a fair, rigorous, and 

evidence-based understanding of the difference that 

educators make. 

•	 We’ve included a focus on evaluation and support 

throughout our policies and programs because we 

believe they are the cornerstone of both effective professional development and human capital management. These systems enable schools to help teachers 

improve their practice by identifying their professional development needs. They also help school leaders 

recognize, promote, and retain their most effective 

educators by assessing performance.

CRITICAL COMPONENT 5: A PROFESSIONAL 

CAREER CONTINUUM WITH COMPETITIVE 

COMPENSATION 

•	 The field is still working to strengthen many of the 

links between evaluation, professional development, 

and advancement that are essential to creating 

the professional career continuum with competitive compensation called for in this blueprint. The 

TIF program illustrates the direction of this work 

by encouraging the transition from a single salary 

schedule based solely on experience and credentials 

to a performance-based compensation structure with 

career ladders for effective teachers, teacher leaders, 

and school leaders. 

•	 States approved for ESEA flexibility are also required 

to use evaluation systems to inform personnel decisions, such as compensation, advancement, and 

tenure.

CRITICAL COMPONENT 6: CONDITIONS FOR 

SUCCESSFUL TEACHING AND LEARNING

•	 States use SIG program funds to support the transformation of dysfunctional school environments into 

ones where educators are well-supported and united 

in an effort to improve outcomes for students. The 

Department has also promoted state and district 

efforts to increase time for teachers to collaborate. 

Under the SIG program, districts implementing the 

transformation or turnaround model are required to 

provide additional time for teachers to collaborate, 

plan, and engage in professional development within 

and across grades and subjects. 

•	 Through ESEA flexibility, the Department offered 

states a waiver of certain requirements of the 21st 

Century Community Learning Centers (21st CCLC) 

program in order to allow states to use 21st CCLC 

funds during the school day to support high-quality 

expanded learning time. This in turn can help provide 

additional opportunities for teacher collaboration and 

additional instruction for students. 

•	 The RTT-D competition, which made its first awards 

in December 2012, also has a strong focus on shaping 

school environments—including staffing, technology, 

and support services—to better meet the needs of 

individual students. 

CRITICAL COMPONENT 7: ENGAGED 

COMMUNITIES

•	 The most prominent example of the Department’s 

efforts to engage communities is its Promise Neighborhoods grant program. This program funds efforts 

to bring schools and community partners together in 

high-need areas in order to provide a continuum of 

services that target not only children’s educational 

needs, but also the physical, social, and emotional 

challenges that create barriers to their academic 

achievement. 

•	 Additionally, the RTT-Early Learning Challenge (RTTELC) grant program includes a focus on states’ efforts 

to design and implement integrated systems of highquality early learning programs and services, requiring strong community-school relationships. 
14

APPENDIX B 

RESPECT GRANT COMPETITION OVERVIEW

To realize the RESPECT vision, the president has proposed 

investing $5 billion in an initiative to transform the teaching profession. Under this initiative, states and, in nonparticipating states, consortia of districts would compete 

for funds to pursue bold and comprehensive reforms of 

all aspects of the profession—from whom they recruit 

to how they prepare, develop, compensate, and advance 

teachers and principals. Like RTT, this initiative would 

generate momentum for reform across competing states 

and districts, and the winners would develop reform strategies that would be shared with other states and districts. 

Recognizing the importance of STEM education, the 

president also proposed setting aside a portion of the 

RESPECT competition funds to support the creation of a 

STEM Master Teacher Corps. The STEM Master Teacher 

Corps would build on the RESPECT foundation while focusing specifically on strengthening the development and 

retention of highly effective STEM teachers. 

The RESPECT competition would award grants to states 

and districts to transform the teaching profession by addressing the seven key areas of reform discussed below. 

These areas reflect the growing consensus among education stakeholders about what it would take to transform 

teaching and learning in our schools. Moreover, the seven 

areas mirror those in the recent joint statement on transforming the teaching profession by the major national 

groups representing teachers, chief state school officers, 

district administrators, and school boards. In signing 

the statement, these divergent groups came together 

for the first time to support a shared vision for elevating 

the teaching profession. As these groups recognize, the 

seven areas of reform are interdependent—the success of 

reforms in any one area depends on the success of those 

in the other areas. For this reason, the competition would 

require applicants to comprehensively address all seven 

areas. 

1. A CUL TURE OF SHARED RESPONSIBILITY 

AND LEADERSHIP 

States and districts would empower educators in schools 

to take collective ownership and responsibility for student learning. Structures of shared decision-making and 

open-door practice would provide educators with the collaborative time and the autonomy to do what is best for 

each student, and the profession would hold its members 

accountable for ensuring that high standards of practice 

were met. To this end, states and districts could: 

•	 Create shared decision-making structures at schools 

that empower principals and teacher leaders to develop school goals and strategies for achieving them, 

and to make the primary decisions about educator 

selection, assignment, evaluation, dismissal, and 

career advancement.

•	 Provide school leaders and teachers with structured 

time to work collaboratively to solve the learning 

challenges their students face. They would be held 

accountable for results, but given the autonomy professionals need to do their jobs effectively.

2. TOP TALENT, PREPARED FOR SUCCESS

States and districts would follow the example of the 

world’s leading education systems by developing comprehensive strategies for attracting talented individuals to 

careers in teaching and school leadership, and improving 

the quality of their preparation. To this end, states and 

districts could:

•	 Provide multiple effective pathways for preparing 

teachers and leaders from diverse backgrounds. Each 

of these pathways would include a rigorous clinical 

training component that would allow aspiring teachers and leaders to practice their craft in real schools 

and classrooms under the guidance of effective 

mentor-teachers and leaders.

•	 Develop innovative partnerships between preparation 

programs and school districts. Through these partnerships, preparation programs and districts would 

work together to prepare teachers and leaders with 

the skills and subject matter expertise to meet the 

needs of the participating districts.

•	 Hold teacher and principal preparation programs 

accountable for results by tracking and publishing 

data on the success of their graduates in improving 

student achievement and other measures. Aspiring teachers and leaders would use these data to 
15

choose among programs. States would use the data 

to identify and expand high-quality programs. They 

would also use the data to identify and assist weak 

programs and ultimately shut down those that do not 

improve. 

3. EFFECTIVE TEACHERS AND PRINCIPALS

States and districts would develop rigorous teacher and 

principal evaluation systems. In implementing these systems, they would use multiple measures of performance, 

including student growth data as a significant factor, to 

differentiate between educators. Rather than treating 

evaluation as an end unto itself, they would use evaluation as a tool for managing and supporting their education 

workforce. They could, for example, design and use their 

evaluation systems to: 

•	 Assess the professional development needs of teachers and school leaders at all levels and provide them 

with targeted feedback, professional learning, and 

other support.

•	 Identify and share the best practices of the most effective teachers and school leaders.

•	 Inform personnel decisions, including hiring, promotions, placement, tenure, and dismissal. States and 

districts could, for example, recognize and promote 

highly effective teachers to increase their retention 

rates and expand their impact on students and other 

educators. They could also not renew the contracts of 

teachers who, despite receiving support, are ineffective with students. 

•	 Promote systems of peer assistance and review 

where expert teachers evaluate and support their 

colleagues and are themselves evaluated partly based 

on their impact on their colleagues’ development. 

4. C ONTINUOUS GROWTH AND PROFESSIONAL 

DEVELOPMENT

States and districts would strengthen professional development for teachers and school leaders. As noted above, 

this begins with anchoring professional development to 

strong evaluation systems by using evaluation data to 

target professional development to the needs of educators. To further improve professional development, states 

and districts could also:

•	 Assess the impact of professional development 

activities, eliminate activities that yield few benefits 

relative to their cost, and replace those ineffective 

activities with evidence-based forms of professional 

learning. 

•	 Provide teachers with ongoing and job-embedded 

forms of professional development, including opportunities to observe each other’s classrooms, co-teach 

with peers or mentors, and collaborate with other 

teachers to plan lessons, design assessments, and 

analyze and improve their individual and collective 

practice. 

•	 Give teachers and school leaders access to a rich 

array of data on their schools and students, as well as 

training on how to use the data effectively to improve 

student achievement. 

5. PR OFESSIONAL CAREER CONTINUUM WITH 

COMPETITIVE COMPENSATION

States and districts would redesign their certification, human capital management, and compensation systems to 

attract, develop, and retain talented teachers and school 

leaders, particularly in high-need schools. As part of this 

work, they could, for example:

•	 Offer highly effective teachers and leaders in highneed schools recognition, financial incentives, and 

other forms of support, such as more flexible roles or 

increased autonomy. 

•	 Make teachers’ salaries more competitive with those 

in other highly regarded professions.

•	 Develop career pathways for teachers and school 

leaders. Such pathways could provide educators 

opportunities to enter the profession in supervised, 

well-supported roles and to progress to more-advanced and higher-paying positions over the course 

of their careers. For example, educators could enter 

the profession as “residents” or “apprentices,” working under the supervision of mentor-teachers until 

they are certified. Once they are certified, they could 

receive beginning teacher status and serve as the 

teachers of record in their classrooms. Beginning 

teachers would continue to receive guidance from 

mentor-teachers and would have the opportunity to 

earn professional status or tenure after demonstrating their effectiveness with students over multiple 

years. After gaining professional status, teachers who 

are highly effective could earn higher pay, “distinguished” or “master” educator status, and opportunities to take on leadership and hybrid roles. Teachers 

who excel in these roles could be afforded opportunities to advance to higher levels of leadership, such as 
16

the principalship. Similarly, highly effective principals 

could receive higher pay, recognition, and opportunities to share their leadership strategies with other 

principals.

6. Creating Conditions for suCCess

States and districts would work with schools to ensure 

their climates and cultures, uses of time and resources, 

approaches to staffing, deployment of support services, 

and engagement of families are optimized to continuously 

improve student outcomes. They would work to ensure 

that high-need schools in particular provide students with 

the intensity of instruction and support services needed 

to succeed academically. For example, states and districts 

could:

•	 Encourage schools to organize their faculties into 

like-minded teams committed to meeting specific 

ambitious academic goals. They could also grant the 

teams autonomy to meet their academic goals and 

to use multiple measures of school climate as well 

as academic performance to assess progress toward 

those goals.

•	 Restructure the school day, week, or year to improve

teaching and student outcomes. For example, this

could involve lengthening the school day or year to

provide students with more time to participate in

academic and enrichment activities, and teachers

with more time to collaborate on refining instruction.

•	 Implement innovative and flexible approaches to

staffing to meet the different needs of students and

teachers and to increase the impact of effective

teachers. For example, this might include providing

the most effective teachers with release time or hybrid

positions enabling them to mentor other teachers.

It might also involve offering these teachers higher

pay to teach larger classes with the support of

apprentice or resident teachers, allowing them to 

reach more students.

•	 Leverage technology to further expand the reach of

highly effective teachers and to enable teachers to

tailor their instruction to their students’ individual

needs and interests.

7. engaged Communities

States and districts would help their schools form strong 

partnerships with local communities. These partnerships 

would aid teachers in improving student achievement and 

well-being by creating supportive conditions for students 

in their schools and communities. As part of this work, 

states and districts could:

•	 Partner with businesses to improve student achievement and motivation. For example, such partnerships

could create career academies—school programs

with career themes that show students the connection between their education and career aspirations,

and offer them hands-on learning opportunities, such

as internships at local businesses.

•	 Create community schools by partnering with local

businesses, nonprofit organizations, and government agencies to offer academic, health, and social

services at school sites to support students and their

families.
17

APPENDIX C 

STEM MASTER TEACHER CORPS OVERVIEW

The president has proposed setting aside a portion of the 

RESPECT funds to support a STEM Master Teacher Corps. 

The Corps would recognize and reward the most accomplished STEM educators by offering them membership in 

a national community of talented STEM educators, an annual stipend of up to $20,000 on top of their base salary, 

and opportunities to serve as instructional leaders in their 

schools and communities. The program would advance 

the RESPECT vision for STEM educators by improving the 

retention of the most effective STEM educators, expanding their impact on their colleagues, and increasing the attractiveness of the teaching profession to high-achieving 

college students and professionals in STEM fields. 

The STEM Master Teacher Corps would be supported by 

the Department of Education and established in collaboration with nonprofit organizations and public-private 

partnerships between STEM-related businesses and 

school districts. Key parts of the plan include:

1. A RIGOR OUS SELECTION OF THE MOST 

ACCOMPLISHED STEM TEACHERS FROM 

ACROSS THE COUNTRY

The president’s budget request for 2014 includes $35 

million to launch a pilot of the STEM Master Teacher 

Corps that would initially support up to 1,000 teachers, 

and over four years, with additional funding from the 

RESPECT competition, the Corps would be expanded 

to reach 10,000 master teachers. Teachers would be 

selected through a highly competitive process, based on 

their demonstrated effectiveness in improving student 

achievement in one or more STEM subjects, their content 

knowledge, and their demonstrated ability to lead their 

STEM teacher colleagues. The selection process would be 

administered locally or regionally, but aligned to a set of 

national guidelines, and it would leverage the evaluation 

and human capital management systems of participating 

districts. 

2. NA TIONAL RECOGNITION AND REWARDS, 

INCLUDING COMPENSATION TO KEEP CORPS 

MEMBERS IN THE PROFESSION

STEM Master Teacher Corps members would make a 

multi-year commitment to the Corps. In exchange for 

their expertise, leadership, and service, they would receive an annual stipend of up to $20,000 on top of their 

base salary, which would make their compensation more 

commensurate with the salaries they could earn as STEM 

professionals outside of teaching. This recognition would 

further raise the prestige of the Corps members, enabling 

America’s schools to attract, secure, and retain the best 

talent in the STEM teaching profession.

3. C ORPS MEMBERS AS A NATIONAL RESOURCE 

FOR THEIR SCHOOLS AND FOR OTHER STEM 

EDUCATORS

STEM Master Teacher Corps members would build a 

community of teaching practice where they live, helping 

students excel in STEM subjects while taking on leadership and mentorship roles in their schools, communities, 

and the STEM teaching field. Corps members would lead 

professional development activities, assist their schools 

and school districts in evaluating and providing feedback 

to other teachers, and validate and disseminate effective practices to improve STEM instruction. Some Corps 

members would also create online instructional videos 

and materials that other STEM teachers could use in 

their classrooms to improve student learning. In addition, 

Corps members would participate in regular convenings 

with their colleagues in the Corps to share best practices 

and deepen their instructional leadership skills and subject matter expertise.
18

APPENDIX D 

THE RESPECT PROJECT DISCUSSION DOCUMENT: ENVISIONING 

A TEACHING PROFESSION FOR THE 21ST CENTURY

The following discussion document has been used in conversations about transforming the teaching profession with 

teachers and school leaders around the country. As these 

conversations have progressed, the vision for the profession 

has been updated to reflect the ideas and experiences of those 

who serve in our classrooms and schools. 

I. INTRODUCTION 

The Challenge: In order to prepare our young people to 

be engaged citizens, to compete in the global job market, and to keep up with both persistent and emerging 

challenges facing our country, the United States must 

ensure that teaching is a highly respected and supported 

profession, that accomplished, effective teachers guide 

students’ learning in every classroom, and that effective 

principals lead every school. 

Despite the fact that teaching and leading schools is 

intellectually demanding, rigorous and complex work, too 

often educators are not acknowledged as professionals 

with unique skills and qualifications. They receive little 

classroom experience before certification, and once in the 

field, they are not supported, compensated, or promoted 

based on their talents and accomplishments. Too often 

teachers and principals operate at schools with a factory 

culture, where inflexible work rules discourage innovation 

and restrict teachers’ opportunities to consult with others, 

to work together as a team, and to take on leadership 

responsibilities. As a result, the field of education is not 

highly regarded – many of America’s brightest young college graduates never consider entering the profession,12

and others leave prematurely, while too many of our students are left without the education they need to thrive in 

the 21st century. 

The Vision: It is time for a sweeping transformation of 

the profession. We must develop innovations in the way 

we recruit, prepare, credential, support, advance, and 

compensate teachers and principals. As in other highperforming countries, our schools of education must be 

12 McKinsey & Co. (2010). Closing the Talent Gap: Attracting and 

Retaining Top-Third Graduates to Careers in Teaching. Retrieved from 

http://

mckinseyonsociety.com/downloads/reports/Education/Closing_the_

talent_gap.pdf 

both more selective and more rigorous. To attract top 

students into the profession and to keep talented teachers from leaving, we must dramatically increase potential 

earnings for teachers. We must create career and leadership opportunities that enable teachers to grow their 

roles and responsibilities without leaving the classroom, 

and we must intentionally develop teachers who are 

gifted managers into school leaders and principals. Rather 

than linking compensation solely to years of service or 

professional credentials, teachers’ pay should reflect the 

quality of their work and the scope of their professional 

responsibility. To ensure that the students who need the 

best teachers and principals get them, salaries should 

also reflect taking on the additional challenges of working 

in high-need schools (urban and rural) or in hard-to-staff 

subjects. Care should be given to ensure that teachers 

in these schools are well supported by principals who 

respect their expertise and create positive school cultures 

with high expectations for everyone.

To transform the profession, we envision a school model 

and culture built on shared responsibility and ongoing 

collaboration, rather than on a top-down authoritarian 

style. Our call for historic improvement in the professional 

opportunities for and compensation of teachers and principals is matched by an equally dramatic effort to rethink 

how teaching is organized and supported. We see schools 

staffed with effective principals who are fully engaged in 

developing and supporting teachers, who involve teachers 

in leadership decisions, and who provide teachers with 

authentic, job-embedded professional learning. Likewise, 

we see families working in partnership with schools, 

where parents are welcome and where they respect the 

efforts of educators to teach their children. Finally, we see 

schools made stronger by leveraging community resources, expertise, and activities, and we envision communities 

that thrive as they are anchored around highly effective 

schools.

Teachers and school leaders work every day with our 

nation’s children—an intrinsically rewarding and joyful job. We need to redesign the profession so that we 

unleash the inherent joy in teaching and learning, nurture 

creativity and innovation in our schools and classrooms, 

and deliver the outcomes that our children deserve and 

our country’s future demands. Moving toward this vision 
19

will require tough choices and a willingness to embrace 

change, but the urgency and the opportunity for real and 

meaningful progress have never been greater.

The RESPECT Project. To support this vision, the U.S. 

Department of Education has begun working with educators—teachers, school and district leaders, teachers’ 

associations and unions, and state and national education 

organizations—to spark a national conversation about 

transforming education for the 21st century. We call it 

the RESPECT Project. RESPECT stands for Recognizing 

Educational Success, Professional Excellence, and Collaborative Teaching. Educational Success recognizes our 

commitment to improving student outcomes. Professional 

Excellence means that we will continuously sharpen our 

practice and that we will recognize, reward, and learn 

from great teachers and principals. Collaborative Teaching 

means that we will concentrate on shared responsibility and decision-making. Successful collaboration means 

creating schools where principals and teachers work and 

learn together in communities of practice, hold each other 

accountable, and lift each other to new levels of skill and 

competence.

There is no one path to success. Different districts, 

schools, principals, and teachers will take different approaches to achieving the vision. Our goal is for a national conversation about the RESPECT Project to serve 

as a catalyst for remaking education on a grand scale. 

To do so, we must lift up the accomplished teachers in 

our classrooms and bring in a new generation of wellprepared, bright young men and women. Together these 

teachers will make education a valued and respected profession on par with medicine, law, and engineering. We 

must staff our schools with strong principals who nurture 

and develop great teaching. And we must take a wholesystem approach to support these teachers and principals 

in our schools. By transforming the teaching profession, 

this country’s most important work will become our most 

valued work. 

II. A NEW VISION OF TEACHING AND LEADING

A truly transformed education profession requires us to 

think boldly as a country about how we might redesign 

our educational systems to attract, prepare, support, 

retain, and reward excellent teachers and principals. Just 

as critically, we must think about how the classroom, the 

school environment, and the school day and year might 

be reshaped to support and sustain this transformation. 

A Reorganized Classroom

A new vision of education begins with the recognition 

that teachers are passionate, skilled professionals whose 

focus is on effectively engaging students, ensuring their 

learning, and shaping their development. Teachers know 

that to productively engage in our democracy and compete in our global economy, students will need strong, 

well-rounded academic foundations; cultural and global 

competencies; the ability to collaborate, communicate, 

and solve problems; and strong digital literacy skills. 

We would like to see the classroom transformed into a 

place where accomplished teachers creatively apply their 

knowledge and skills to meet these goals, and where 

their expertise is acknowledged by parents, students, and 

administrators. To this end, we envision inclusive schools 

and classrooms that are configured based on students’ 

needs and teachers’ abilities, rather than on traditionally 

prescribed formulas. In these schools, teams of teachers, 

instructional leaders, and principals collaborate to make 

decisions about how schools and classes are structured, 

creating spaces where faculty members can visit one 

another’s classes to learn from each other and to work 

together to solve common challenges.

Structuring classrooms to maximize instruction could take 

many different forms. For example, classrooms with many 

high-need students might contain fewer students than 

other classes. The most accomplished teachers might be 

asked to serve a larger number of students per class, with 

teams of Resident or Beginning teachers extending the 

reach of the most accomplished teachers, while offering 

newer teachers the opportunity to learn by observing and 

assisting a Master teacher. Likewise, the format and mode 

of instruction might differ according to students’ needs 

and the technology available. The traditional physical 

classroom space might shift to clustering arrangements 

or stations where groups of students engage in distinct 

tasks, some collaborative and some individual, that use a 

variety of activities to continually engage students in different modes of learning.

In this new vision, classroom learning is guided by 

rigorous academic standards and high expectations, 

while being supported by data and technology that are 

student-centered and teacher facilitated.13 High-quality 

data measuring student learning is made available and 

accessible to teachers on an ongoing basis—in real time, 

where appropriate. Teachers are prepared to use the data 

13 U.S. Department of Education (2010), Transforming American 

Education: Learning Powered by Technology, National Education 

Technology Plan 2010. Retrieved from http://www.ed.gov/technology/

netp-2010
20

to inform and adapt instruction hour-to-hour, day-to-day, 

and year-to-year. 

Technology also plays a strong role in personalizing learning and supplementing classroom instruction so that students can learn at their own pace and with a wider array 

of approaches and resources. The introduction of technology into more classrooms is accompanied by additional 

support (e.g., classroom aides and extensive guidance on 

how to best utilize the new technology to meet learning 

objectives) to ensure that new instruments truly enhance 

– rather than diminish—the teacher’s instruction. To the 

extent that technology facilitates teachers’ ability to 

engage more students simultaneously, the use of technology can support flexible student-teacher ratios, freeing up 

some teachers to provide additional support to students 

who need more of their attention.

A New School Day and School Year

In a transformed education profession, the academic 

needs of the student body determine the structure of 

the school day, week, and year, and the current school 

calendar is replaced by a calendar developed with sustained student learning in mind. Students are no longer 

held in lock-step, age-based cohorts (grades), but instead 

progress through the system based on what they know 

and can do. Using this type of individualized approach, 

coupled with dynamic grouping, some students may need 

a longer school day or school year, while others performing at or above grade level might be able to learn within 

the time traditionally allotted or at an even faster pace. 

For teachers, this means that the hours of instruction 

might vary depending on the student population. Teachers working with students in need of additional learning 

time might have extended hours of instruction to provide 

every student with time and support to master the content. Principals and other instructional leaders, such as 

master and mentor teachers, work with their colleagues 

to determine the most effective strategies to utilize time.

To get the job done, teachers work professional weeks and 

days—as many do already—that extend beyond the traditional school day. Removing the outdated time schedule 

that currently exists in many schools provides teachers 

with more choices and greater flexibility in how they use 

their time to accomplish their goals. More flexibility in the 

school day also affords teachers time needed for reflection, for planning and collaboration, for the review of 

student data, and so on. Sufficient time for collaboration 

is especially needed for teachers of students with disabilities and teachers of students who are English learners. In 

some cases, time spent on duties out of class exceeds the 

amount spent in the classroom. Even when the hours of 

direct instruction remain roughly the same, many teachers work year-round to provide additional instruction for 

certain students, to collaborate with colleagues, and to 

engage in meaningful professional learning. For example, 

a cohort of teachers who focus on remediating students 

who are falling behind might have a lighter load during 

the normal school schedule, but they might use additional 

periods to help students who need more time. Others 

might participate in strategic planning for the school, 

extracurricular activities with students (e.g., college tours, 

summer field trips, etc.), or curriculum development 

during the extended time. Principals maximize use of the 

additional time, not by adding to teachers’ workloads, but 

by teaming with teacher leaders at the school to provide 

the structures, schedules, and systems needed to support 

great teaching.

Finally, to provide the flexibility that teachers might 

request at different points in their careers, part-time 

teaching opportunities are available so that some teachers may work fewer hours a day, fewer days a week, or 

fewer months a year. Teaching is uniquely suited to this 

type of flexible staffing, and it could be an option offered 

to teachers and schools with unique needs, for example 

those in rural areas and in hard-to-staff or specialty subjects. 

An Environment of Shared Responsibility Among Teachers and Principals

Today’s schools are still places where, by and large, a set 

number of students and one teacher work at individual 

desks behind a closed door. Too many teachers remain in 

isolated classrooms, lacking collaboration and feedback 

from their peers and school administrators. We envision 

a shift in philosophy away from the closed-door approach 

and toward greater communication and cooperation. 

Similarly, the NEA Commission on Effective Teaching 

and Teachers (CETT) proposes a change in the culture 

of teaching and calls for teaching professionals to boldly 

challenge the status quo by teaching, collaborating, and 

leading in new ways.14

Strong Principals. Research has shown that leadership 

is second only to teaching among school influences on 

student success and that the impact of leadership is 

most significant in schools that have the greatest needs. 

Effective principals, along with other instructional leaders, recognize the potential they have to create a school 

14 Commission on Effective Teachers and Teaching (2011). Transforming 

Teaching: Connecting Professional Responsibility With Student Learning: A Report to the NEA. Retrieved from http://www.nea.org/assets/

docs/Transformingteaching2012.pdf
21

environment where teachers want to work and where 

effective teachers can thrive. They maintain a constant 

presence in the school and in classrooms, listening to 

and observing what is taking place, assessing needs, and 

getting to know teachers and students. They mobilize 

the school around a clear mission, high expectations and 

shared values, and school improvement goals. With the 

aim of meeting clear performance goals, principals find 

creative ways to maximize the time and productivity of 

their most precious resource—their teachers. They create 

spaces in the workday for teachers to collaborate, to view 

each other’s classrooms, to solve problems as a team, 

and to build their expertise. In a transformed profession, 

principals recognize effective teaching and know how to 

facilitate professional development and career paths for 

educators. Principals and other school-based instructional 

leaders are evaluated based in part on how well they select, prepare, develop, and support excellent teachers, just 

as superintendents and other administrators are measured partly by how well they support effective schools 

and principals. 

Distributed Leadership. A handful of effective educators in a dysfunctional school cannot make a sustained 

difference for children. Principals and other leaders must 

systematically create opportunities for participation by 

all stakeholders to develop a plan that is values driven 

and data informed. A culture of shared responsibility requires principals who bring together coalitions of 

teacher-leaders who have the skills to meet the school’s 

objectives and create a culture of continuous learning 

and shared decision-making. Teams of teacher-leaders 

and principals work in partnerships to identify challenges, 

propose solutions, and share in distributed leadership and 

decision-making at all levels, including hiring, structuring 

the school day and school year, and designing professional learning. 

A Teaching Career That Attracts, Prepares, Supports, 

and Rewards Excellence

At present, too many teachers enter the classroom unprepared. Some fail to become effective but still remain in the 

profession, while other effective teachers leave because 

they feel unsupported and underpaid.15 Moreover, many 

of our nation’s highest performing college students never 

consider entering this rewarding and important field. 

A new vision of the teaching profession revises each step 

of the current career trajectory: raising the bar for entry, 

preparing teachers well during pre-service programs with 

high standards for exiting successfully, and supporting 

15 McKinsey & Co., Ibid.

and rewarding effective teachers at each stage of their 

careers so that they continue to grow, be recognized 

for professional accomplishment, and ultimately stay in 

education. Leaders in this profession continually assess 

teachers’ effectiveness and accomplishments, simultaneously empowering school leadership to personalize professional development, to deliberately reward contributions to the larger community, to provide opportunities for 

advancement, and to dismiss teachers who are ineffective 

despite ample support. 

Entering the Profession. Currently too many teacher 

preparation programs fail to attract and select highly 

qualified candidates with the knowledge, skills, and 

dispositions to take on the challenge and complexity of 

teaching today’s students. Moreover, once in a program, 

many candidates don’t receive the clinical preparation 

they need to manage classrooms and teach students with 

a range of needs and abilities. In addition, individuals who 

may wish to become teachers later in their careers often 

find themselves excluded from the profession because 

they haven’t pursued traditional pathways into the field, 

even though they may have the aptitude and knowledge 

to do an exceptional job. Finally, certification for all new 

teachers, whether entering teaching through traditional 

paths or not, sets a low bar that is often disconnected 

from classroom performance. 

In a 21st-century profession, teacher preparation programs set a high bar for both entering and exiting their 

programs successfully. To enter programs, aspiring teachers come from the top tier of students in the country, 

demonstrate subject-area expertise (or be in the process 

of becoming experts in their subject area), and display 

dispositions associated with successful teaching, such as 

an ability to connect with students from a wide variety of 

backgrounds, perseverance, and effective communication 

skills with teachers, students, principals, and community 

members. The student teaching experience itself is taken 

very seriously, with student teachers supervised by highly 

effective classroom teachers who have been trained as 

mentors. Likewise, supervisors from the student-teacher’s 

preparation program carefully consider the feedback of 

the classroom teacher when deciding whether teachers 

have successfully completed the precertification program. To successfully complete a preparation program, 

preservice teachers demonstrate strong subject-area 

knowledge, proficiency in improving student learning 

through research-based practices, solid understanding of 

pedagogy, and the ability to work effectively with peers 

towards common goals. Successful completion of student 

teaching indicates that the student-teacher has accomplished something significant, meeting an important bar 
22

for entry into the profession, and preferably earning the 

student teacher a position in the school or district where 

the student teaching took place. 

In our vision, traditional teacher preparation programs 

provide one among several paths into the profession. Alternative pathways might include obtaining an advanced 

degree or working extensively in another field, then gaining certification from the state and entering the classroom 

as the teacher of record upon demonstration of satisfactory performance. All teacher preparation programs 

track and publish data on how successful their graduates 

are as teachers (through ratings of principals and other 

measures, including student learning) and how long their 

graduates stay in the profession. These data are considered by aspiring teachers deciding among preservice 

programs and by school districts making informed hiring 

decisions. There are also pathways for career changers 

who have extensive content knowledge and experience in 

another field, but who need an entryway into the classroom that matches their professional history.

Though teachers enter the profession through different 

avenues, all preparation pathways require demonstrated 

effectiveness in the classroom. For example, candidates 

following a traditional college or university trajectory 

participate for one to two years as Resident teachers 

under the aegis of a Master teacher. Career changers 

with significant subject-area expertise might be able to 

demonstrate proficiency in other ways and step in as Beginning teachers focused on building their pedagogy and 

teaching repertoire. In all cases, teachers move along the 

career trajectory, based on demonstrated performance, 

and continue receiving support as needed. 

Career Pathways and Professional Advancement. A 

significant challenge in retaining effective educators has 

been finding ways to offer teachers satisfying career 

paths, avenues that allow them to take on significant roles 

and responsibilities and earn higher salaries without leaving the classrooms they love. Teachers long for opportunities that recognize their talents and allow them to contribute to transforming their schools into more effective 

centers for learning. Moreover, teachers who may have 

interest in moving to an administrative role would benefit 

from avenues that allow them to cultivate their skills over 

time while still serving as effective teachers. As Madeleine Fennell, chair of the NEA-sponsored Commission 

on Effective Teachers and Teaching, has said, it is “ ... time 

to blast open the glass ceiling or glass door of advancement in the [teaching] profession.” A new vision of the 

profession would offer accomplished teachers multiple 

pathways to advance their careers without leaving the 

classroom. Development and advancement could occur 

at every stage of a teacher’s career, based on demonstrations of effectiveness with students and colleagues. 

One vision of such career pathways might look like this. 

New graduates—or perhaps those still in preparation programs—might enter the profession as Residents, working 

under the supervision of Master teachers until certified. 

Once aspiring teachers demonstrate basic proficiency in 

the classroom and are certified, they become Beginning

teachers. In the Beginning status as teacher of record, 

teachers might continue developing knowledge and 

skills for several years, working with a Master teacher or 

mentor, before earning full Professional status and receiving substantially higher pay. Earning Professional teacher 

status would require a teacher to demonstrate effective 

teaching, including successive years of improving student 

outcomes. Beginning teachers unable to demonstrate 

effectiveness in a reasonable amount of time would not 

remain teachers.

Once Beginning teachers advance to Professional status, 

they could remain in the classroom for the rest of their 

careers if desired, but they would have other options. 

Some may want to remain teachers but mentor Beginning

or Resident teachers for part of the day as Master teachers. Others may prefer to spend part of their day taking on 

leadership responsibilities, such as planning community 

outreach, developing curriculum, or planning professional 

development, as Teacher Leaders. Teachers would be offered a career lattice that recognizes varying professional 

strengths and interests and matches experience, desire, 

and expertise with commensurate levels of responsibility 

and compensation. For an example, please see the Sample 

Teacher Role Structure on p. 24. 

In our vision, principals also are selected based on their 

ability to be instructional leaders and to manage the 

complex dynamics of schools. Leaders in districts look for 

teacher-leaders who would make excellent principals and 

develop their repertoire of skills. If a teacher decides to 

become a principal, he or she secures additional preparation to be certified as a principal, including significant 

clinical experience in a leadership capacity. 

Teacher Evaluation and Development. The majority of 

teachers report that teacher evaluation systems have 

been broken for decades. Even as the metrics in many 

states and districts have improved, most teachers are 

still assessed in very distinct events once or twice a year, 

rather than through a process that affirms their strengths 

and helps them to improve their practice. For teaching 

to be truly transformed, educators need integrated and 

useful evaluation systems with results closely aligned 
23

to professional learning. Teachers and principals should 

contribute to designing and implementing equitable and 

transparent evaluation systems with multiple measurements of effectiveness. 

The evaluation systems we envision include a range 

of summative and formative components, such as an 

analysis of teacher responsibilities and accomplishments, 

measurements of student growth data, results from the 

formal and informal observations, self-evaluations, and 

feedback from students and peers. Observations are 

made by skilled evaluators who are knowledgeable about 

both content and pedagogy. These evaluations are more 

meaningful and useful for informing decisions related 

to all aspects of advancement, including compensation, 

tenure, and dismissal. 

In a transformed profession, all teachers and principals 

are fully evaluated at least annually, regardless of tenure 

status. Furthermore, the professional learning that springs 

from the results of evaluations is used to transform teacher training. Professional learning is an important priority in 

school learning communities, with learning plans inextricably linked with current classroom practice, and with 

teachers observing and helping to sharpen each other’s 

methods. Instead of primarily sending teachers out of 

the building for expensive professional development that 

helps only a few, schools become learning communities that promote collaborative work and align teacher 

development with high, nationally recognized standards 

for professional learning. As a result, teachers’ continued 

development includes ongoing, job-embedded professional development that is informed by data and that 

integrates innovative theories with efficacious practice, 

emerging educational research, and models of human 

learning to achieve outcomes for students. Teachers share 

in decision-making around their professional learning, 

so that teachers in one school decide to work on how to 

best implement their state’s newly adopted state standards, while others focus on strategies to connect with 

the community and parents more effectively. For example, 

teachers could engage in professional development to 

build their skills using technology to engage students, 

personalize instruction, or enhance their communication 

with parents and the educational community. 

Compensation. Most educators enter the profession because they want to nurture young people, to watch their 

students learn, grow, and thrive. Many see teaching as a 

calling. Because they believe that education can propel a 

child out of even the most hopeless of life circumstances, 

they teach to enable all students—regardless of their zip 

code—to create futures full of possibility and promise. 

Without diminishing these intrinsic rewards, most teachers and principals tell us that compensation really does 

matter. This complex, demanding, and critically important 

profession demands a compensation structure commensurate with that of other professions that are highly 

valued by society. That is what it will take to attract and 

retain the highest caliber of talent in education, and that 

is what the profession is worth.

In our vision, starting salaries for fully licensed professional teachers should be $60,000–65,000, adjusted as 

appropriate to the cost of living in different regions. Additionally, salaries would increase faster than they do today, 

and maximum salaries would be higher, so that Master 

teachers and other teacher-leaders would have the ability 

to earn as much as $120,000–150,000 after about 7–10 

years. Principals would earn comparable salaries. Whereas today’s compensation tends to be linked solely to years 

of service or professional credentials, under this new 

vision, salary would reflect the quality of a teacher’s work, 

his or her effectiveness helping students to grow academically, and the scope of the teacher’s responsibility. 

To attract the best teachers and principals to work with 

the students who need them most, competitive salaries 

might be paired with other incentives such as bonuses, 

tuition subsidies, portable licenses, and loan forgiveness. 

These same inducements might be used to attract and retain teachers in high-demand subjects like STEM, English 

language instruction, and special education. 

It takes more than just salary to create high-performing 

schools. Teachers need supportive and effective principals 

and strong school cultures if students are to succeed. 

They need appropriate resources and support. And they 

need buildings that are physically and technologically 

suited to teaching and learning. But we do not expect other professionals—doctors, engineers, architects—to work 

multiple jobs to cover basic expenses, to afford a home, 

or to send their children to college. We are entrusting the 

future of our nation to our educators. Their compensation 

matters.

This is our vision for P–12 education: That our students 

graduate from high school as creative and critical thinkers who are well-prepared for college and careers, and 

ready to participate as responsible and engaged citizens 

in our country and in the world. Certainly, our students 

have a part in the responsibility for their own growth and 

learning, and we adults have much progress to make 

motivating them to make good choices. But our vision 

will be realized only when we as a nation take seriously 

our obligation to prepare all of our young people for the 

opportunities they will have and the challenges they will 
24

face, and when we treat our principals and teachers as 

the professionals that they are. When we make a commitment to recruit, train, develop, support, and pay our 

educators well, and when these educators share responsibility for ensuring every student’s learning, our children, 

our economy, and our country will reap the benefits for 

generations.

SAMPLE TEACHER ROLE STRUCTURE

There are numerous structures that might offer teachers meaningful career lattices that could support excellent teaching and leadership. Ultimately, it will be up to 

schools and districts to work with teachers to develop 

these arrangements and determine the right mix of roles 

and responsibilities that will work for them and for their 

students. We offer one example below.

A. ENTERING THE FIELD: THE RESIDENT TEACHER

The Resident teacher is a beginner who, still in (or perhaps 

fresh out of) a teacher preparation program, engages in a 

highly supported teaching practicum or residency. Unlike 

current student teaching experiences, Residents would 

be paid for their work (perhaps $20,000). Paired with a 

Master teacher who has content-area expertise and provides support, feedback, and coaching, Residents are not 

yet teachers of record. Rather, under the Master teacher’s 

supervision and tutelage, they continually reflect on and 

develop more fully their skills, including preparing effective lessons, analyzing data, communicating with parents, 

and managing classrooms. 

Most teachers, though not all, will experience a residency 

program for one year and move on to be certified as 

Beginning teachers only after meeting a bar of minimal 

proficiency set for entering the profession. Some teachers, 

unable to achieve this goal at the end of a second year, 

will not be granted entry.

B. DEVEL OPING GREATER EFFECTIVENESS: 

THE BEGINNING TEACHER

The Beginning teacher is a certified educator who is ready 

to take on the challenges and joys of running a class 

independently as the teacher of record but who is still 

developing into an effective instructor. Beginning teachers 

demonstrate that they have learned essential teaching 

skills that allow them to effectively instruct and monitor 

the progress of students, but their development is still 

monitored, nurtured, and evaluated, and progress proceeds in a planned and intentional way. School leaders 

encourage their growth and development by pairing them 

not only with a quality Master teacher from the same 

content area, but also by engaging them with a variety 

of energetic and experienced colleagues. These collegial 

interactions expand the Beginning teachers’ perspective 

and include them as important contributors to school 

life. Successful school leaders will continually watch for 

the Beginning teachers’ areas of passion and interest and 

encourage them. 

Teachers in the Beginning role are considered pre-tenure 

instructors, but unlike pre-tenure colleagues from the old 

system, who were instructed to “keep quiet until tenure,” 

Beginning teachers will be consciously and systematically 

encouraged to contribute to the larger school community. Beginning teachers may earn salaries akin to today’s 

beginning teachers—between $35,000 and $50,000 

per year for their service—and they will spend two to five 

years honing their skills before being promoted to Professional teacher, a title earned by demonstrating sustained 

Resident

Teacher

Meets

Standard of

Performance

Meets

Standard of

Performance

Beginning

Teacher

Professional

Teacher

Teacher

Leader

Various

District

Positions

Master

Teacher

School 

Principal

Pre Service 

or new grad

New grad or experienced

career switcher who

achieves certification
25

effectiveness—perhaps after receiving two years of effective ratings in a row. Tenure may also be conferred at this 

point in a teacher’s career. Those Beginning teachers who 

do not meet this high bar will not continue in the profession. 

C. EARNING THE FULL RESPECT AND 

RESPONSIBILITY OF THE PROFESSION: 

THE PROFESSIONAL TEACHER

Professional teachers are tenured professionals who focus 

the majority of their energy on teaching and learning. 

Such teachers thrive in a classroom where creative, collaborative, and engaged instruction is the norm. Professional teachers are exemplary lifelong learners whose 

fascination with academic content is paired with their 

ability to use data to promote academic growth. They are 

reflective practitioners who are informed by the ongoing, 

professional feedback of peers and students. Unlike solo 

fliers, Professional teachers actively seek to involve school 

leaders, colleagues, parents, students, and community 

partners as important sources of information and expertise. The Professional teacher is also a tireless academic 

advocate and coach who manages the myriad resources 

in the school and community to support student success.

Professional teachers receive an immediate and significant 

salary increase when they are promoted from Beginning

status, having demonstrated their effectiveness with students. Salaries for Professional teachers might range from 

$65,000 to $120,000, depending on teachers’ skills and 

continued effectiveness over time. Professional teachers 

may remain in this role for their entire careers, assuming 

that they continue to demonstrate effectiveness through 

their evaluations, or they may choose to advance into 

leadership roles. 

D. DEVEL OPING TEACHERS AND STUDENTS: 

THE MASTER TEACHER

A Master teacher is a classroom-based, exemplary educator who models effective teaching practices for Resident

and Beginning teachers, and who serves as a teaching 

resource for the entire professional team. As highly effective educators and lifelong learners who use researchbased techniques, the Master teacher is a “teacher of 

adults,” one who possesses the skills and disposition 

to support and inspire colleagues, as well as the ability 

to offer constructive feedback and evaluation of Beginning teachers and Resident teachers. Master teachers are 

key members of a school’s leadership team; they focus 

on cultivating and supporting a culture of reflection and 

continuous improvement. 

Master teachers could remain in the classroom on a parttime basis (e.g., three to four teaching hours/day) to allow 

them the remaining time to support colleagues appropriately. Master teachers are likely to have spent five or more 

years in the classroom and to have been rated as highly 

effective for at least three. Master teachers may remain 

in the role as long as they are highly effective for at least 

three out of every five years of continued practice. Master

teachers, in short, are exemplary teachers of students and 

of their colleagues who, if desired, might make excellent 

principals in the future. Salaries for Master teachers may 

range between $80,000 and $150,000.

E. SHARING S CHOOL LEADERSHIP: 

THE TEACHER-LEADER

Like Master teachers, Teacher-Leaders function in hybrid 

or specialty roles that sometimes have them teaching 

classes to students and at other times have them working with the principal or leadership team on any number 

of school-based initiatives. For example, a Teacher-Leader

might share distributed leadership with the principal, 

direct a site-based research project, develop communities of practice, or design a peer evaluation and review 

system.

Whatever the unique job description, Teacher-Leaders

are crucial members of a school or district leadership 

team, and are personally and professionally responsible 

for a school’s success. Teacher-Leaders model the most 

important professional practices and habits of mind, 

including the school’s core values. To this end, they lead 

school teams to examine the impact of teaching practice on student growth, and they are experts at working 

with adults to build a culture of learning and continuous 

improvement. Teacher-Leaders are not selected because 

they are popular with other teachers or administrators. To 

be eligible to become a Teacher-Leader, teachers may, for 

example, have spent at least five years in the classroom 

and have demonstrated that they are effective classroom 

teachers for at least three consecutive years. TeacherLeaders may remain in the classroom on a part-time basis 

and may earn between $80,000 and $150,000. As with 

Master teachers, with further development Teacher-Leaders could become effective principals.
26

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