ethanporcaro/eric-fulltext-meta huggingface dataset:
Good Policy, Good Practice II. Improving Outcomes and Productivity in Higher Education: A Guide for Policymakers
Author: Brenneman, Meghan Wilson
Date: 2010-11-00
Type: Guides - Non-Classroom
Subjects: Productivity,Higher Education,Educational Practices,Public Policy,Best Practices,Educational Improvement,Improvement Programs,Alignment (Education),Change Strategies,Educational Change,College Preparation,Governance,Accountability,Financial Policy,Educational Planning,Leadership Effectiveness,Guides

This new edition of "Good Policy, Good Practice II" revises and updates the authors' 2007 publication. Like the earlier edition, it responds to one of the questions that is raised most frequently in the authors' work with public policy and education leaders as they begin to address the national and state imperatives to increase the proportion of Americans who enroll in college programs and complete degrees and certificates, and to improve the cost effectiveness and affordability of higher education. Their question is: Are there proven policies, programs, and practices that everyone can learn from? The answer is clearly "yes." This report describes some of the programs and practices that hold the most promise for raising educational productivity. This second edition attempts to rectify a shortcoming of the initial report--the need to be explicit about the requirement for convergence of policy and practice. The lack of connection between institutional attempts to improve practice and public policy that supports these innovations explains, in no small part, the limited implementations of many of the innovative educational practices proven to be most effective. The authors call attention to the need for policy change if current and future innovations are to be systematically developed, supported, replicated, implemented on a large scale, and sustained. Significant progress in the absence of both institutional and policy leadership working in tandem is unlikely. (Contains 1 figure and 15 notes.) [For the first part, "Good Policy, Good Practice. Improving Outcomes and Productivity in Higher Education: A Guide for Policymakers", see ED499122.]
Building Teacher Quality in Baltimore City Public Schools
Author: National Council on Teacher Quality
Date: 2010-00-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Teaching (Occupation),Public Schools,Educational Policy,Content Analysis,Teacher Effectiveness,Academic Achievement,Urban Schools,Boards of Education,School Law,State Government,Unions,Educational Change,Personnel Data,Instructional Leadership,Teacher Selection,Teacher Placement,Teaching Conditions,Teacher Salaries

At the request of the Education Reform Project of the American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland, the National Council on Teacher Quality undertook an analysis of the teacher policies in the Baltimore City Public Schools. Its analysis looks at the teachers' contract, school board rules and state laws. It also collected personnel data from the school system and spoke with teachers, principals, union leaders and district administrators to learn how the policies play out in practice. The purpose of this study was to identify areas in which better district and state policies and practices might lead to improved teacher quality in Baltimore City, even absent other enhancements such as increased funding or better school leadership. While Baltimore appears to have made great improvements in the past few years to better align its teacher policies with teacher quality goals, much work remains to ensure that every child has an effective teacher. This analysis is framed around 10 policy goals for improving teacher quality. These goals fall under three areas: (1) Hiring, transfer and assignment; (2) Developing an effective teacher corps; and (3) Working conditions and compensation. The Impact of Teachers' Advanced Degrees on Student Learning (Metin Ozdemir and Wendy Stevenson) is appended. (Contains 27 footnotes.)
Arizona's Race to the Top: What Will It Take to Compete?
Author: Doherty, Kathryn
Date: 2010-00-00
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Competition,Educational Change,Educational Experience,Grants,Educational Finance,Costs,Teacher Qualifications,Funding Formulas,Teacher Effectiveness,Human Capital,Teacher Education,Alternative Teacher Certification,Educational Improvement,Management Systems,Beginning Teacher Induction,Statewide Planning,Equal Education,Teacher Salaries,Incentives,Performance Based Assessment,Science Education,Engineering Education,Mathematics Education,Technology Education,State Curriculum Guides,Administrator Effectiveness

The U.S. Department of Education recently published a notice of draft priorities and requirements for applying for &quot;Race to the Top&quot; (RTT) funding--$4.35 billion in competitive federal grants. Even though it constitutes the smallest piece of education stimulus funding in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, &quot;Race to the Top&quot; represents the most significant source of education stimulus funding ever to be awarded to states by competition, with the vast majority of funds awarded by formula to all 50 states and the District of Columbia. While the U.S. Department of Education is under no obligation to spread &quot;Race to the Top&quot; money among all states, that may be what some states expect, since there is so much money available. The authors are betting that is not how the race will go. So, what will it take for Arizona to compete? In this paper, the authors lay out a number of features of &quot;Race to the Top&quot; funding and discuss what states like Arizona should expect from the upcoming competition. They then provide a description of the kind of strategies--including next steps broken down by key actors and back-of-the-envelope cost calculations for implementing such strategies--being promoted both by Department officials as well as the many influential education reform groups that have the Department's ear. The Impact of Teachers' Advanced Degrees on Student Learning (Metin Ozdemir and Wendy Stevenson) is appended. (Contains 53 footnotes.)
Ed School Essentials: A Review of Illinois Teacher Preparation
Author: Greenberg, Julie
Date: 2010-00-00
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Preservice Teacher Education,Teacher Effectiveness,Accreditation (Institutions),Teacher Education Programs,Undergraduate Study,Graduate Study,Program Evaluation,Student Recruitment,Teacher Competencies,Program Effectiveness,Teacher Qualifications,Teaching Skills,Classroom Techniques,Pedagogical Content Knowledge,Cooperating Teachers,Reading Instruction,Mathematics Instruction,State Standards,National Standards

The imperative for prospective teachers, school districts, Illinois policy makers and the public as a whole to know more about teacher preparation is the motivation behind this report. At the request of Advance Illinois, the authors evaluated 111 undergraduate and graduate programs in 53 education schools as well as three &quot;independent providers&quot; that recruit, but do not fully prepare, teachers. Each program is evaluated against a set of standards drawn from 39 total that indicate if education schools are: (1) attracting talented individuals; and (2) preparing them in the &quot;specific&quot; ways that will make teachers more effective in the classroom. In this review the authors examine in unprecedented detail programs of study at each education school to determine if candidates can acquire the knowledge and skills that school superintendents routinely wish they had acquired. By looking in detail at the design of an education schools' program, the authors pursue key questions such as: Will the school's graduates be able to teach reading or manage a classroom? Will they be sufficiently knowledgeable about their content area? Do they know about different types of assessments? Have they practiced enough and under the tutelage of teachers who are themselves effective? Only one program out of 111 programs examined in this review earned an &quot;A-.&quot; Too many programs tilt toward the bottom end of the scale. If individuals are to improve teacher quality, they must find a way to shift this curve so that it is skewed right rather than left. It is true that many of these programs are complying with the standards set by the state and accrediting agencies. Unfortunately, these standards are not sufficient. In the name of teacher quality, institutions must choose to exceed these standards. In essence, the authors are recommending that institutions redesign their teacher preparation programs in ways that will ensure that every component--from what it takes to be admitted, what happens during the preparation, to what it takes to successfully graduate--is in line with excellence. The authors do so not as an enemy of high quality traditional teacher preparation, but as a strong defender. As such, institutions should take the authors' review not as a call to arms against this messenger, but as an opportunity for surmounting a growing national sentiment that the time has come to give up on improving education schools. In effect, what they offer is a survival guide.
A Call for Change: The Social and Educational Factors Contributing to the Outcomes of Black Males in Urban Schools
Author: Lewis, Sharon
Date: 2010-10-00
Type: Numerical/Quantitative Data
Subjects: Males,African Americans,Minority Group Students,Educational Opportunities,Disproportionate Representation,Urban Schools,Urban Areas,Public Schools,Grade 4,Grade 8,Reading Achievement,Mathematics Achievement,White Students,Comparative Analysis,Social Environment,Educational Environment,Outcomes of Education

The nation's young Black males are in a state of crisis. They do not have the same opportunities as their male or female counterparts across the country. In order to get a complete picture of the depth of the issues, the authors look most closely at the reading and math achievement of the fourth- and eighth-grade Black males in the large city schools. The authors track their progress and compare their scores, as a whole, with the scores of White males in national public schools. In various combinations, they compare the scores of Black and White males who are and are not eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, Black and White males with and without disabilities, and Black males in urban areas vs. Black males in national public schools among other comparisons. Also, they look at the disaggregated reading and math achievement levels of Black males in 18 big city school districts. Finally, the authors look at dropout figures and school experiences. The authors examine college entrance examination scores and college readiness, enrollment, and graduation data. The report concludes with statistics on the postsecondary experiences of Black males, professional degrees attained, wages, and living conditions. Council of the Great City Schools' Demographics, 2008-2009 is appended. (Contains 86 figures and 7 footnotes.)
Bumping HR: Giving Principals More Say over Staffing
Author: National Council on Teacher Quality
Date: 2010-10-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Elementary Secondary Education,Human Resources,Principals,Central Office Administrators,Teacher Selection,Personal Autonomy

In what may come as a surprise to many, principals have remarkably little control over who teaches in their schools. For the most part, the human resources (HR) department in a   district's central office, not individual school principals, makes the final call about when to hire teachers, whom to hire and in which schools they are placed. Districts generally downplay the authority of their HR offices, insisting that principals play an integral role in staffing. Such assertions are only partly true. Aside from a few notable exceptions, most districts sharply limit the authority of principals to staff their schools. So who, exactly, hires teachers? Almost all districts routinely give principals an opportunity to interview teachers for vacancies. Many also allow principals to independently advertise for, recruit and recommend good candidates for hire. &quot;If&quot; the district determines that a school vacancy is legitimate, &quot;if&quot; it has not already hired a full slate of new teachers and &quot;if&quot; it does not need to fill a vacancy with a teacher who was &quot;excessed&quot; from another school, then the principal may select the teacher. The problem with this system is that principal authority depends on too many &quot;ifs.&quot; Even plans for reauthorizing the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, or ESEA (more recently known as NCLB), would likely give HR departments yet another reason to intervene in hiring and transfer decisions. In the goal of achieving &quot;comparability,&quot; or ensuring that high-quality teachers are spread throughout a district, the new ESEA would tie funding to districts on the basis of whether teachers are equitably distributed throughout the district. This paper explores the problems, including this latest, that get in the way of the &quot;ifs&quot; and what districts and state legislatures can do differently to provide greater principal autonomy over school staffing. It explores the staffing policies in 101 school districts and points to promising practices and solutions for states and districts to consider. (Contains 8 figures.)
Human Capital in Boston Public Schools: Rethinking How to Attract, Develop and Retain Effective Teachers
Author: National Council on Teacher Quality
Date: 2010-00-00
Type: Numerical/Quantitative Data
Subjects: Human Capital,Public Schools,Teacher Effectiveness,Academic Achievement,Personnel Data,Instructional Leadership,Teacher Recruitment,Teacher Persistence,Teacher Selection,School Districts,Graduate Study,Educational Policy,Teacher Salaries,Beginning Teacher Induction,Tenure,Leaves of Absence,Teacher Transfer,Teacher Dismissal

Staffing each classroom with an effective teacher is the most important function of a school district. Doing so requires strategic personnel policies and smart practices. The National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ), working with its local partner, the Massachusetts Business Alliance for Education, undertook an analysis of the Boston Public Schools' existing teacher policies, which included reviewing the teachers' contract and other relevant documents; collecting personnel data and talking with local stakeholders to learn how the rules play out in practice; and comparing Boston to other nearby districts, as well as districts throughout the country. The researchers worked to identify areas in which better policies--adopted by both the district and the state--would lead to improved teacher quality, even absent other factors such as increased funding or better school leadership. NCTQ must emphasize that Boston has made great strides over the past decade in improving its human capital policies; however, much work needs to be done to ensure that every child has an effective teacher. The Impact of Teachers' Advanced Degrees on Student Learning (Metin Ozdemir and Wendy Stevenson) is appended. (Contains 29 figures and 38 footnotes.)
The Final Stretch: An Analysis of the Race to the Top Round 2 Finalists
Author: National Council on Teacher Quality
Date: 2010-00-00
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: State Legislation,Competition,Educational Change,Public Agencies,Federal Government,Education,Program Proposals,Evaluation,Teacher Effectiveness,Tenure,Educational Improvement,Academic Achievement,Faculty Development,Accountability,Performance Based Assessment,Teacher Evaluation

The U.S. Department of Education recently announced the finalists for the second round of the Race to the Top (RTT) competition, with the winners to be announced in September. Round one of the competition yielded just two awards earlier this year, with Delaware and Tennessee claiming approximately $600 million of the available funds. Thirty-five states and the District of Columbia applied for the remaining $3.4 billion, and the final competitors include all of the finalists with a failed first round bid (Colorado, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and South Carolina) plus five new contenders: Arizona, California, Hawaii, Maryland and New Jersey. On the first lap of RTT, the promise of support from unions, districts and other stakeholders appeared to weigh heavily in the reviewers' judgments. Commitment in the form of comprehensive state legislation also proved important to which states made the cut in round one. But the rules of the road have shifted a bit for this lap of the race. The Department instituted a new funding rule, setting a range of awards from $20-$700 million and capping award totals based on state size. Reviewers also will have to navigate a field of competitors that looks much more alike now--which may not be surprising given that states have had full view of the high scoring applications and know what the reviewers saw as the strengths and weaknesses of each proposal. With most finalists now saying most of what they believe the Department wants to hear, identifying the truly innovative and groundbreaking states willing to see the race through to its end will be the real challenge. This report's goal is not to outline the full scope of the teacher proposals or make predictions about which states will win RTT grants. Its intent is to provide a view of the strengths and weaknesses of each finalist's teacher reform agenda, as presented in each RTT application.
The All-Purpose Science Teacher: An Analysis of Loopholes in State Requirements for High School Science Teachers
Author: National Council on Teacher Quality
Date: 2010-00-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Teacher Effectiveness,Secondary School Teachers,Science Teachers,Teacher Certification,High Schools,Teacher Qualifications,State Standards,Pedagogical Content Knowledge

The basic story line of the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) crisis   is, at this point, well known. In an increasingly interdependent and technology-driven economy, America is falling behind. A substantial number of students cannot perform basic math. U.S. students lag behind peers in international comparisons of science and math knowledge and skills. Fewer American students than ever are graduating from college with math and science degrees, and there is a shortage of K-12 teachers in STEM fields. In this paper, the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) shows that the problem is deeper still. The U.S. suffers not only because of the math and science teachers we "don't" have--in many cases we also set unacceptably low expectations for the STEM teachers we "do" have. Based on their high school science licensure requirements, many states seem to presume that it is all the same to teach anatomy, electrical currents and Newtonian physics. NCTQ's analysis of state policies regarding these requirements finds that many states fail to guarantee that biology, chemistry and physics teachers have mastered the content they teach. Most states cling to a loose definition of "science teacher"--ultimately treating specialized science teachers as interchangeable. As a result, it is necessary to examine preparation and credentialing requirements, which, as this report shows, include some pretty big loopholes for secondary science educators. NCTQ finds, in fact, that all but 11 states allow secondary science teachers to obtain general-science certifications or combination licenses across multiple science disciplines. In most cases, these teachers need only pass a general-knowledge science exam that does not ensure subject-specific content knowledge. Having reviewed each state's secondary-school science certification policies, this report divides the states into three categories. A green light indicates that a state has adequately ensured that its high school teachers possess the content knowledge necessary to teach specific scientific subjects. Yellow means the state combines subject-area science certification with general-knowledge science assessments, thus allowing teachers to teach specific courses without the requisite content knowledge. Finally, this report exposes states with catch-all science certification requirements, including some that make no demands on teachers to demonstrate specific content expertise, by giving them red lights.
Analysis of Seattle's New Teacher Contract
Author: National Council on Teacher Quality
Date: 2010-10-00
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Teaching (Occupation),Collective Bargaining,Content Analysis,Improvement,Teacher Evaluation,Performance Based Assessment,Teacher Effectiveness,Accountability,Professional Autonomy,Principals,Teacher Selection,School Law

The Seattle-based Alliance for Education recently asked the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) to review the newly negotiated collective bargaining agreement for teachers in Seattle. This analysis comes one year after NCTQ released a study looking at the human capital policies in the city's schools, focusing largely on ways to improve teacher work rules. What NCTQ has seen in the year since is promising. In fact, the new contract makes a number of significant improvements, which is especially noteworthy given the constraints of state laws and regulations. Together with the Seattle Education Association, the school district negotiated a labor agreement that gives district schools, particularly the lowest performing, more autonomy over building their staffs and prioritizes the role of student learning in evaluating teachers. Other improvements, such as added planning time for collaborating with other teachers, also represent strong progress. This analysis focuses on the two most significant improvements in the labor agreement: (1) Improving teacher evaluations and, therefore, holding teachers accountable for their performance; and (2) Giving principals the authority to select their staffs. (Contains 4 footnotes.)
Teacher Layoffs: Rethinking &quot;Last-Hired, First-Fired&quot; Policies
Author: National Council on Teacher Quality
Date: 2010-02-00
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Teaching (Occupation),Teacher Employment,Job Layoff,Criteria,Educational Policy,Status,Academic Achievement,Student Needs,Teacher Effectiveness,Employment Patterns,School Districts,Labor Economics,Teacher Supply and Demand,Educational Finance,State Legislation

In the past year, cash-strapped districts have been handing out pink slips by the hundreds, and some, by the thousands. The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that nearly 60,000 teachers were laid off in 2009. State budget gaps and deficit projections, with federal stimulus funding already spent, suggest more of the same for 2010. Some observers expect current cuts to come faster even than those of the 1970s, when the baby boom generation waned, emptying out schools across the country. In this paper, the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) taps into its TR[superscript 3] (Teacher Rules, Roles and Rights; www.nctq.org/tr3) database to examine district policies, some mandated by state law, for making layoff decisions. TR[superscript 3] posts data from 100 school districts across all 50 states, including the 75 largest districts in the nation as well as the 25 largest districts in the states that would not be otherwise represented. These 100 districts represent 20 percent of all public school students in the United States. A list of recommendations that will help school districts navigate difficult layoff decisions while keeping student needs front and center in the process is also presented. (Contains 5 figures and 10 footnotes.)