ethanporcaro/eric-fulltext-meta huggingface dataset:
Using Competency-Based Evaluation to Drive Teacher Excellence: Lessons from Singapore. Building an Opportunity Culture for America's Teachers
Author: Steiner, Lucy
Date: 2010-00-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Academic Achievement,Teacher Effectiveness,Competence,Measurement,National Competency Tests,Teaching Methods,Foreign Countries,Economic Opportunities,Human Capital,Teacher Evaluation,Mathematics Achievement,Teacher Persistence,Career Development,Promotion (Occupational),Teacher Salaries,Comparative Analysis,Structured Interviews,Teacher Selection

The United States' education system needs to take its critical next step: fairly and accurately measuring teacher performance. Successful reforms to teacher pay, career advancement, professional development, retention, and other human capital systems that lead to better student outcomes depend on it. Where can the U.S. find the best-practice know-how for this? To start, it should look to nations that have revamped teacher performance measurement to sustain teaching excellence, and Singapore offers a remarkable example. In the early 2000s, the small but racially and economically diverse nation of Singapore designed and implemented a new, performance-linked method of measuring teacher effectiveness that enables measurement of teachers in all subjects and grades. Singapore had already developed a high-performing education system. But as global economic opportunities for its citizens increased, it needed to ensure continued recruitment, retention, and performance of talented teachers. Today, Singapore's students consistently perform at the top of internationally comparable exams, and 98 percent of Singapore's sixth-grade students achieve math standards more rigorous than the eighth-grade standards on the U.S. NAEP exam (National Assessment of Educational Progress). What can the United States learn from Singapore? Much, it seems, and Singapore knows it. The complete recipe for its educational success is not public, and determining the ingredients in the secret sauce is a challenge. But one element stands out: the development and thorough use of performance-linked &quot;competencies&quot; to measure, reward, and develop teacher performance. This paper presents a brief background on the state of teacher evaluation in the United States, the case for why the country can learn much from Singapore, and key facts about Singapore's competency-based teacher evaluation system. (Contains 6 figures, 2 tables, and 65 notes.)
Opportunity at the Top: How America's Best Teachers Could Close the Gaps, Raise the Bar, and Keep Our Nation Great. Building an Opportunity Culture for America's Teachers
Author: Hassel, Bryan C.
Date: 2010-00-00
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Teaching (Occupation),Elementary Secondary Education,Teacher Effectiveness,Academic Achievement,Teacher Role,Teacher Recruitment,Achievement Gains,Educational Policy,Public Policy,Commercialization,Teaching Conditions,Teacher Evaluation,Career Development,Achievement Gap,Barriers,Strategic Planning,Job Development,Educational Change,Professional Recognition,Rewards,Compensation (Remuneration)

Our nation is squandering one of its most important resources--our best teachers--and children are paying the price. We asked a simple question: &quot;Will our nation's bold efforts to recruit more top teachers and remove the least effective teachers put a great teacher in every classroom?&quot; We ran the numbers and discovered a disappointing answer: No. Even if these reforms were wildly successful, nearly two-thirds of classrooms still would not have great teachers. Why does this matter? Only great teachers--those in the top quartile--achieve the student learning progress needed to close our nation's achievement gaps and raise our bar to internationally competitive levels. Others do not. But approximately 64,000 top teachers leave teaching every year. And the best teachers who stay reach no more children than the very worst teachers. If we add high-performer retention and reach extension to bold recruiting and dismissal, 87 percent of classes could be taught by gap-closing, bar-raising teachers--in a mere half-decade. This outcome is within our reach--but only if we vastly expand opportunities for great teachers by: Building an Opportunity Culture for America's Teachers. Written with support from The Joyce Foundation, this report explores the potential impact of policy initiatives designed to improve student access to great teachers. Current policy initiatives overlook the most obvious, immediate source of improved teaching effectiveness: the great teachers we already have. The top 25 percent of U.S. teachers--more than 800,000 of them--already achieve results that would enable all of our children to meet and exceed standards. (Contains 14 figures and 72 notes.) [For related reports, see &quot;Opportunity at the Top: How America's Best Teachers Could Close the Gaps, Raise the Bar, and Keep Our Nation Great. Summary&quot; (ED539988) and &quot;Opportunity at the Top: How America's Best Teachers Could Close the Gaps, Raise the Bar, and Keep Our Nation Great. Executive Summary&quot; (ED539999).]
Seizing Opportunity at the Top: Reaching Every Student with Excellent Teachers--Policymakers' Checklist
Author: Public Impact
Date: 2012-00-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Teaching (Occupation),Elementary Secondary Education,Teacher Effectiveness,Teacher Leadership,Teacher Evaluation,Educational Policy,Public Policy,Commercialization,Perspective Taking,Career Development,Achievement Gap,Achievement Gains,Barriers,Strategic Planning,Job Development,Teaching Conditions,Educational Change,Professional Recognition,Rewards,Compensation (Remuneration)

Research continues to confirm that without &quot;excellent&quot; teachers consistently, most students who start behind stay behind, and too few middling and advanced students leap ahead. Even solid teachers who achieve one year of learning progress leave achievement gaps intact. Schools that &quot;consistently&quot; provide all students with excellent teachers--those in today's top 20 to 25 percent who achieve well over one year of learning progress--can close most gaps fast. Rigorous recruitment, development, and retention, and necessary dismissals will improve teaching. Among other nations making education surges, the most common practice has been to limit who can teach to their top high school or college students who also exhibit other qualities needed for great teaching. U.S. states could and should follow their lead. But this alone would not be adequate in the nation's economy, absent paid career advancement that makes the teaching profession attractive to more top candidates. To ensure that every student has access to an excellent teacher in nearly every class, states and districts must also help excellent teachers &quot;extend their reach.&quot; Reach extension uses job redesign and technology to free excellent teachers' time to reach more students, for more pay, with available budgets. Reach extension also creates new roles for other teachers to learn from the best, contribute to excellent student learning immediately, and pursue career advancement, too. How can state and district leaders create policies that help excellent teachers reach more students? By better identifying top teachers; freeing schools and districts to redesign jobs; paying excellent teachers more; proactively retaining top teachers; and building instructional and data systems, policymakers can put excellent teachers in front of more students--&quot;consistently,&quot; and &quot;within budget.&quot; [For related reports, see &quot;Seizing Opportunity at the Top: How the U.S. Can Reach Every Student with an Excellent Teacher. Building an Opportunity Culture for America's Teachers. Working Paper&quot; (ED540001) and &quot;Seizing Opportunity at the Top: How the U.S. Can Reach Every Student with an Excellent Teacher. Building an Opportunity Culture for America's Teachers. Policy Brief&quot; (ED540000).]
Redesigning Schools to Reach Every Student with Excellent Teachers: Teacher &amp; Staff Selection, Development, &amp; Evaluation Toolkit
Author: Public Impact
Date: 2012-00-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Teaching (Occupation),Elementary Secondary Education,Teamwork,Efficiency,Teacher Effectiveness,Job Development,School Culture,Models,Teacher Leadership,Teacher Evaluation,Career Development,Teaching Conditions,Specialization

This toolkit is a companion to the school models provided on OpportunityCulture.org. The school models use job redesign and technology to extend the reach of excellent teachers to more students, for more pay, within budget. Most of these school models create new roles and collaborative teams, enabling all teachers and staff to develop and contribute to excellence. We call this an &quot;Opportunity Culture.&quot; In an Opportunity Culture, all teachers have career opportunities dependent upon their excellence, leadership, and student impact. Advancement allows more pay and greater reach. When excellent teachers reach more students, per-pupil funds are freed to cover higher pay and other priorities. Teachers can learn from their outstanding peers. Most important, all students have excellent teachers in charge of their learning. The toolkit includes job descriptions, competencies, and companion tools that may be used to select, evaluate, and develop teachers and staff. These materials are built for six of the more than 20 school models described on OpportunityCulture.org. The jobs included here cover most of the other school models as well. Some schools may combine school models, and in turn will need to alter the job descriptions and other materials accordingly. Schools must adapt these materials to fit each school setting and to incorporate additional selection, evaluation, and development priorities. For more information, see OpportunityCulture.org, which provides school model summaries, detailed models and tools, career paths, and more. [Contributors include Lucy Steiner, Jiye Grace Han, Emily Ayscue Hassel, Bryan Hassel, Sharon Kebschull Barrett, and Beverley Lester Tyndall.]
Redesigning Schools to Reach Every Student with Excellent Teachers: Using Teacher Data to Attract, Reward, & Retain Top Teachers
Author: Public Impact
Date: 2012-00-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Teaching (Occupation),Elementary Secondary Education,Teacher Evaluation,Data Collection,Data,School Statistics,Information Utilization,Classrooms,Teacher Recruitment,Teacher Distribution,Teacher Persistence,Public Schools,Rewards,Teacher Effectiveness,Job Security

Thanks to increasingly meaningful teacher evaluations, far more is now known about the effectiveness of teachers in public school classrooms. What should states, districts, and schools do with that knowledge? In policy debates, much of the attention has focused on teachers at the "ineffective" end of the spectrum. With better teacher evaluation, the thinking goes, districts can stop awarding tenure to ineffective teachers. They can dismiss teachers who, in spite of professional development and support, do not improve sufficiently. Policies like these are important, but states that stop there will miss a major chance to transform their schools into places that are far better for students--and for teachers. State and district policymakers must focus even more on opportunities for the top 25 percent of teachers, with strong policies that attract, reward, retain, and extend the reach of highly effective teachers. (Contains 6 notes.)
Opportunity at the Top: How America's Best Teachers Could Close the Gaps, Raise the Bar, and Keep Our Nation Great. Building an Opportunity Culture for America's Teachers. Executive Summary
Author: Hassel, Bryan C.
Date: 2010-00-00
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Teaching (Occupation),Teacher Effectiveness,Educational Finance,Teaching Conditions,Strategic Planning,Job Development,Educational Change,Elementary Secondary Education,Rewards,Compensation (Remuneration),Merit Pay,Teacher Recruitment,Educational Policy,Public Policy

Our nation is squandering one of its most important resources--our best teachers--and children are paying the price. Current policy initiatives overlook the most obvious, immediate source of improved teaching effectiveness: The great teachers we already have. The top 25 percent of U.S. teachers--more than 800,000 of them--already achieve results that would enable all of our children to meet and exceed standards. In the full version of this report, the authors projected the pay-off of different strategies for giving more children access to great teachers. Those strategies include our current, boldest policy goals: (1) "recruitment" of high-potential teachers, increasing the proportion of great teachers we attract each year from about 25 percent to 40 percent; (2) "dismissal" of ineffective teachers, tripling the percentage of teachers dismissed for low performance each year, from 2.1 percent to 6.3 percent; (3) "retention" of proven top-quartile teachers, cutting the annual loss of great teachers in half; and (4) "extension of top-teacher instruction" to more children, doubling the average number of children reached by each great teacher. If we add to these existing strategies two more aimed at "the great teachers we already have"--high-performer retention and reach extension--we could reach 87 percent of classes with gap-closing, bar-raising teachers. This outcome is within our reach--but only if we vastly expand the opportunities for top teachers to achieve success, impact, and rewards--by building an "opportunity culture" in education. (Contains 3 figures and 16 notes.) [For related reports, see "Opportunity at the Top: How America's Best Teachers Could Close the Gaps, Raise the Bar, and Keep Our Nation Great. Building an Opportunity Culture for America's Teachers" (ED539995) and "Opportunity at the Top: How America's Best Teachers Could Close the Gaps, Raise the Bar, and Keep Our Nation Great. Summary" (ED539988).]
Seizing Opportunity at the Top: How the U.S. Can Reach Every Student with an Excellent Teacher. Building an Opportunity Culture for America's Teachers. Policy Brief
Author: Hassel, Emily Ayscue
Date: 2012-06-00
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Elementary Secondary Education,Teacher Effectiveness,Teacher Leadership,Teacher Evaluation,Educational Policy,Public Policy,Commercialization,Perspective Taking,Career Development,Achievement Gap,Achievement Gains,Barriers,Strategic Planning

American children deserve the one ingredient we know creates stellar learning results:  excellent teachers. These teachers produce "well over" today's typical year of learning growth. Without them, even with good teachers who produce a full year of progress, children who start behind stay behind, and few students get ahead of their beginnings--the antithesis of the American Dream. In contrast, if our nation consistently provides students with excellent teachers, we could close most of our stubborn achievement gaps in just five years. Policymakers can lead the way. This brief explains why every child needs excellent teachers year after year, how the nation can now meet that need at unprecedented scale, and what changes policymakers must support to make this possible. First, policymakers can speedily "improve the identification" of excellent teachers; the authors explain how. Second, policymakers can "clear the policy barriers" that keep excellent teachers from reaching more students for more pay. The authors outline new policies that would clear these barriers. Third, and of paramount importance, policymakers can "catalyze the will" for schools and districts to put excellent teachers in charge of every student's learning. The authors propose bold solutions to create this will, and they invite others to add to these ideas. Without will-enhancing actions, other policies and education changes will continue to fall short of their potential effects. (Contains 1 figure and 23 notes.) [Contributions by Sharon Kebschull Barrett. For related reports, see "Seizing Opportunity at the Top: How the U.S. Can Reach Every Student with an Excellent Teacher. Building an Opportunity Culture for America's Teachers. Working Paper" (ED540001) and "Seizing Opportunity at the Top: Reaching Every Student with Excellent Teachers--Policymakers' Checklist" (ED539996).]
Seizing Opportunity at the Top: How the U.S. Can Reach Every Student with an Excellent Teacher. Building an Opportunity Culture for America's Teachers. Working Paper
Author: Hassel, Bryan C.
Date: 2012-09-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Elementary Secondary Education,Teacher Effectiveness,Strategic Planning,Teacher Leadership,Teacher Evaluation,Educational Policy,Public Policy,Commercialization,Perspective Taking

American children deserve the one ingredient we know creates stellar learning results: excellent teachers. These teachers produce &quot;well over&quot; today's typical year of learning growth. Without them, even with solid teachers who produce a full year of progress, children who start behind stay behind, and few students get ahead of their beginnings--the antithesis of the American Dream. In contrast, if our nation consistently provides students with excellent teachers, we could close most of our stubborn achievement gaps in just five years, and help many children leap ahead of today's standards. This report explains why every child needs excellent teachers year after year, how the nation can now meet that need at unprecedented scale by reaching more children with excellent teachers, and what changes policymakers must support to make this possible. First, policymakers can speedily &quot;improve the identification&quot; of excellent teachers; the authors explain how. Second, policymakers can &quot;clear the policy barriers&quot; that keep excellent teachers from reaching more students for more pay. The authors outline new policies that would clear these barriers. Third, and of paramount importance, policymakers can &quot;catalyze the will&quot; for schools and districts to put excellent teachers in charge of every student's learning. The authors propose bold solutions to create this will, and they invite others to add to these ideas. Without will-enhancing actions, other policies and education changes will continue to fall short of their potential effects. Excellence for all students must become the new goal, and it is entirely within reach if our nation's schools offer new opportunities for excellent teachers to lead the way. (Contains 7 figures and 38 endnotes.) [Contributions by Sharon Kebschull Barrett. For related reports, see &quot;Seizing Opportunity at the Top: How the U.S. Can Reach Every Student with an Excellent Teacher. Building an Opportunity Culture for America's Teachers. Policy Brief&quot; (ED540000) and &quot;Seizing Opportunity at the Top: Reaching Every Student with Excellent Teachers--Policymakers' Checklist&quot; (ED539996).]
Redesigning Schools: Models to Reach Every Student with Excellent Teachers. Model Summaries
Author: Public Impact
Date: 2012-00-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Teaching (Occupation),Elementary Secondary Education,Teacher Effectiveness,Professional Recognition,Rewards,Compensation (Remuneration),Job Development,Teacher Role,Teaching Models,Merit Pay,Teacher Leadership,Teamwork,Educational Change

In the schoolhouse, nothing matters more to students' learning than their teachers. But only about one of every four U.S. classrooms has an &quot;excellent teacher&quot;--one who produces enough learning progress to close achievement gaps quickly and help all students leap ahead to higher-order learning. What can schools do, now, to reach many more students with excellent teachers year after year &quot;and&quot; help all teachers improve and contribute to excellence? Schools can &quot;extend the reach&quot; of the top 25 percent of U.S. teachers to more students. This paper provides brief descriptions of more than 20 school models that extend excellent teachers' reach by using job redesign, technology, or both. By making the right changes, schools can provide all teachers with career advancement opportunities, and promote collaboration, development, and excellence for every professional. Detailed models, including job descriptions and tools for selection and evaluation, are available online at http://opportunityculture.org/reach/school-models/.
Value-Added Models and the Measurement of Teacher Productivity. CALDER Working Paper No. 54
Author: Harris, Douglas
Date: 2010-12-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Academic Achievement,Accountability,Models,Evaluation Methods,Teacher Effectiveness,Correlation

Research on teacher productivity, and recently developed accountability systems for teachers, rely on value-added models to estimate the impact of teachers on student performance. The authors test many of the central assumptions required to derive value-added models from an underlying structural cumulative achievement model and reject nearly all of them. Moreover, they find that teacher value added and other key parameter estimates are highly sensitive to model specification. While estimates from commonly employed value-added models cannot be interpreted as causal teacher effects, employing richer models that impose fewer restrictions may reduce the bias in estimates of teacher productivity. (Contains 7 tables and 21 footnotes.)
Counting on Character: National Heritage Academies and Civic Education. AEI Program on American Citizenship. Policy Brief 5
Author: Jacobs, Joanne
Date: 2013-01-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Charter Schools,Citizenship Education,Values Education,Ethical Instruction,School Culture,Core Curriculum,College Preparation,Patriotism,Democracy,Student Behavior,Daily Living Skills,Case Studies

This policy brief is the second in a series of in-depth case studies exploring how top-performing charter schools have incorporated civic learning in their school curriculum and school culture. This brief focuses on National Heritage Academies, a for-profit charter management company that runs 74 schools in Michigan and eight other states. NHA schools focus intensely on building strong foundations in the four core subjects--English language arts, math, science, and social studies--while also teaching electives like art, music, physical education, and technology. They are traditional in their approach to teaching, but adopt some student-centered teaching ideas. (Contains 22 notes.)