How should teachers be graded?
Debate rises over how to identify and keep qualified teachers.
By Stacy Teicher Khadaroo | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitorfrom the August 30, 2007 edition
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As the curtain opens on a new school year, the spotlight is on teachers. Off in the wings, a noisy debate ensues about how to ensure that public school teachers are well qualified – and receive enough support – to do their jobs.
There is some consensus on the situation: Students with experienced, highly skilled teachers tend to do better academically. And schools with high concentrations of minority or low-income students have a more difficult time attracting and keeping those teachers.
Agreeing on solutions isn't so easy. Some advocates urge tying pay to performance. Others say more good teachers will stay when the profession gets more respect and pay, and when school leaders improve. Some clamor for tighter staterules on how teachers are educated and certified. Others want more flexibility.
Stirring the current debate is the fact that Congress is expected to take up reauthorization of the federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) this fall. One part of the law requires states, districts, and schools to have 100 percent "highly qualified" teachers for key subjects. That generally means they need to have a bachelor's degree, demonstrate knowledge of their subjects, and be state-certified.
As of last winter (the latest data available), 17 percent of US school districts did not expect to meet the June 2007 deadline for highly qualified teachers, according to a new report by the Center on Education Policy (CEP) in Washington. In addition, 33 states were not on track for all teachers in their state to be "highly qualified."
Whatever the level of compliance, the utility of the NCLB teacher requirement is being challenged:
•More than half the states and two-thirds of the school districts in the nationally representative survey by CEP say the requirement is having minimal or no impact on student achievement.
•Too many states simply put window dressing on inadequate emergency licensing to appear to satisfy the law, says Kate Walsh, president of the National Council on Teacher Quality, a nonprofit advocacy group in Washington.
•Last week a group of parents and advocates in California filed a lawsuit against the US Department of Education for what they consider loopholes in NCLB that result in their children being taught by people not yet qualified.
Qualifications vs. performance
Even if all states and districts fulfilled this part of the law, it wouldn't suffice, according to the Commission on No Child Left Behind, a bipartisan group that solicited input from educators and the public. "It was very clear to us in traveling the country ... that HQT [the high-quality teacher section of NCLB] focuses on the wrong thing – it's about qualifications to enter the classroom and tells you nothing about performance in the classroom," says commission director Gary Huggins.
To shift the focus to effectiveness, the commission recommends that the federal government provide $400 million over the next four years and help states build systems to track individual student performance. Such "growth models" are already being used in a handful of states and can show the gains students make with a particular teacher. That, Mr. Huggins says, should be used to target professional development and to ensure that disadvantaged students have equal access to effective teachers.
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