| 1. |
Taken as a whole, state teacher policies are broken, outdated and inflexible. |
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While the focus on teacher quality and human capital has never been greater, the broad range of state laws, rules and regulations that govern the teaching profession remains in need of comprehensive reform. |
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- The average overall state grade for the 2009 State Teacher Policy Yearbook is a "D."
- States fare worst in the critical area of "Identifying Effective Teachers," with an average grade of "D-."
- The highest average grades are in the areas of "Retaining Effective Teachers" and "Expanding the Teaching Pool," each with an average grade of "D+."
- Florida received the highest overall grade, a "C." Seven other states received a "C-": Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas.
- Three states received an overall grade of "F": Maine, Montana and Vermont.
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| 2. |
Evaluation and tenure policies do not consider what should count the most about teacher performance: classroom effectiveness. |
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Although states control most features of teacher evaluation and tenure, student learning is noticeably absent from the conversation. |
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- Only four states require evidence of student learning to be the preponderant criterion in teacher evaluations. Just 16 states require any objective measures of student learning. Twenty-one states do not even require that evaluations must include classroom observations.
- Only 24 states require that new teachers be evaluated more than once a year. Nine states do not require any evaluations of new teachers. Further, only 17 states require that new teachers be evaluated early enough in the school year to provide the essential feedback and support that all new teachers need.
- States are even more lax when it comes to holding veteran teachers accountable for their classroom performance. Only 15 states require annual evaluations, with some states permitting teachers to go five years or even longer without an evaluation.
- Only four states require the consideration of any evidence of teacher performance as part of tenure decisions; the remaining 47 states permit districts to award tenure virtually automatically.
- Even if states were to require evidence of effectiveness for tenure, 43 states allow teachers to earn tenure in three years or less, which does not give schools enough time to accumulate the necessary data to make a responsible decision about teacher performance.
- Although most states have the preliminary pieces of longitudinal data systems in place, only 21 states have the capacity to match individual student records with individual teacher records. Of these 21 states, only three make any use of the data to assess teacher effectiveness.
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| 3. |
States are complicit in keeping ineffective teachers in the classroom. |
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States fail to articulate that poor classroom performance is grounds for dismissal, create obstacles for districts seeking to dismiss poor performers and provide loopholes that allow ineffective teachers to remain in the classroom. |
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- All but three states have laws on their books that address teacher dismissal, but these laws are much more likely to consider criminal and moral violations than teacher effectiveness. Only one state articulates a separate policy for dismissing teachers for poor performance. In addition, 38 states allow (and another 8 states appear to allow) multiple appeals of dismissals, taking decisions about who stays and who goes away from those with educational expertise and making it too difficult for districts to attempt to dismiss poor performers.
- Just 13 states specify that teachers who have been rated unsatisfactory on multiple evaluations should be eligible for dismissal. Only 25 states require districts to place a teacher with an unsatisfactory evaluation on an improvement plan.
- Licensure tests are meant to ensure that an individual meets the minimal qualifications to be a teacher, yet 21 states permit teachers to remain in the classroom for three years or more without passing all required licensing tests. A mere nine states require teachers to pass all tests before entering the classroom.
- Although the No Child Left Behind Act theoretically banned the practice of employing teachers under emergency licenses, 40 states still allow teachers in classrooms under such licenses in at least some circumstances. Sixteen of these 40 states issue renewable emergency licenses, meaning that teachers who have not met all minimum requirements are allowed to remain in classrooms for extended—and perhaps indefinite—periods of time.
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| 4. |
Few states' alternate routes to certification provide a genuine alternative pathway into the teaching profession. |
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Instead of offering a real alternative, most states' alternate routes either mirror traditional routes or appear to be little more than emergency certificates in disguise. |
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- Although all but one state claim they have an alternate route, only five states offer a genuine alternate route that provides an accelerated, responsible and flexible pathway into the profession for talented individuals. While the routes in 24 states could be improved with some regulatory adjustments, the routes on the books in the remaining 21 states are in need of fundamental and extensive restructuring.
- States do little to effectively screen candidates seeking admission to their alternate routes. Just 11 states require alternate route candidates to meet an appropriate standard of past academic performance, and only 28 states require all alternate route candidates to pass a subject-matter test before starting to teach.
- Alternate route admissions criteria in only 19 states are flexible to the needs and backgrounds of nontraditional candidates. The remaining 32 states require candidates to have a subject-area major without permitting candidates to alternatively demonstrate subject knowledge by passing a test.
- In terms of coursework requirements, many alternate route programs closely resemble traditional preparation programs. Only 14 states appropriately limit the amount of coursework that can be required of alternate route teachers. In addition, only 12 states require that alternate route teachers receive mentoring of high quality and intensity.
- Most states still view alternative certification as the route reserved for needy districts or shortage subject areas. Only 20 states allow broad usage of their alternate routes across subjects, grades and geographic areas, and also allow organizations other than higher education institutions to train teachers.
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| 5. |
States' requirements for elementary teacher preparation ill equip teachers of the youngest students to teach the basic building blocks of all learning: reading and mathematics. |
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Few states are doing enough to make sure that prospective elementary teachers know how to teach reading or mathematics, arguably the most important job of an elementary teacher. |
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- Only 25 states require teacher preparation programs to fully address the science of reading either through coursework requirements or standards that programs must meet. Even fewer states make sure that prospective teachers actually have acquired this knowledge. Only five states use an appropriate, rigorous test that ensures teachers are well prepared to teach their students to read.
- Aspiring elementary teachers must acquire a deep conceptual knowledge of the mathematics that they will teach. Massachusetts is the only state that requires such preparation and is also the only state that requires an appropriate, rigorous test that ensures teachers are well prepared to teach mathematics.
- States' requirements also neglect preparation in the broad content that elementary teachers must deliver. For example, only two states require elementary teacher candidates to study American literature, and only 17 states require introductory study of American history. While more states require study of science, preparation is still generally lacking, with 36 states requiring physical science, and just two states requiring chemistry. While 32 states recognize the importance of arts education in the elementary classroom by requiring preparation in music, only one requires art history.
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| 6. |
States' requirements for middle school teachers do not prepare these teachers to transition students to more advanced secondary-level content. |
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Middle school grades are critical years of schooling, a time when far too many students fall through the cracks. Yet many states fail to distinguish the knowledge and skills needed by middle school teachers from those needed by elementary teachers. |
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- Sixteen states allow teachers to teach grades seven and eight with a K-8 generalist license. Another five states allow this license to be used under certain circumstances. By offering such licenses, states suggest the content and pedagogy needed to teach eighth grade math or science is no different than what is required of early elementary grade teachers.
- Twenty-six states require insufficient content preparation for middle school teachers. Only nine states require middle school teachers to earn two minors, the most flexible way to ensure that middle school teachers will be qualified to teach two subject areas.
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| 7. |
States' requirements for the preparation of special education teachers are one of the most neglected and dysfunctional areas of teacher policy. |
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States' low expectations for what special education teachers should know stand in stark contradiction to state and federal expectations that special education students should meet the same high standards as other students. |
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- Twenty-six states do not require elementary special education teacher candidates to take any subject-matter coursework or demonstrate content knowledge on a subject-matter test. The remaining states have requirements that vary tremendously in terms of the quality of content-area preparation they require.
- Although secondary special education teachers must be highly qualified in every subject they will teach, not one state requires teacher preparation programs to ensure that secondary special education teachers are highly qualified in two subject areas upon program completion. Sixteen states require secondary special education teachers to be qualified in one core area, while the remainder—35 states—do not require that programs graduate secondary special education teachers who are highly qualified in any core academic areas.
- No state offers a separate HOUSSE route for new secondary special education teachers to use to achieve highly qualified status, although this is specifically permitted under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.
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| 8. |
States fail to exercise appropriate oversight of their teacher preparation programs. |
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States do not hold their teacher preparation programs accountable for their admission standards, efficiency of program delivery or, most importantly, the quality of their graduates. |
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- Although 46 states require teacher candidates to pass a basic skills test in order to receive a license, only 15 states make such test a condition of admission into a teacher preparation program, with the result that programs spend too much time remediating skill deficits and not enough time preparing teachers for the classroom.
- Few states connect their program-approval process to measurable outcome data about programs' graduates. Only 21 states collect any meaningful objective data that reflect program effectiveness, and just five of these states have taken the next step of setting minimum standards that programs must meet to continue receiving approval.
- Despite the absence of evidence linking accreditation to the preparation of more effective teachers, seven states require their programs to attain national accreditation in order to receive state approval. One state allows programs to bypass state approval if they earn national accreditation. Another 12 states too closely tie their approval process to national accreditation.
- States do little to keep programs' tendencies to require too much professional coursework in check. Programs with excessive professional-coursework requirements leave little room for electives, make it difficult to graduate in four years and may leave insufficient room for adequate subject-matter preparation. In 44 states, NCTQ found approved programs that require 60 or more credit hours in education coursework. Just 4 states have policies that regulate the amount of professional coursework that may be required.
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| 9. |
States cling to outmoded compensation structures, providing few financial incentives to retain effective teachers. |
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States do not encourage—or in some cases even allow—districts to move away from traditional "step and lane" salary schedules and toward compensation structures that reward high-performing teachers. |
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- Seventeen states require districts to adhere to a state-dictated salary schedule that sets minimum pay for every level, and 18 states require districts to pay more to teachers with advanced degrees—generally master's degrees—which have never been shown to add value to teachers' effectiveness.
- Only 28 states help districts by supporting incentives (differential pay or loan forgiveness) to teach in high-needs schools, and just 25 states provide incentives to teach shortage subject areas such as mathematics or science.
- Of the 19 states that support performance pay, not all have programs that recognize its appropriate uses and limitations. Only 16 states explicitly connect performance pay to evidence of student achievement, and only 14 states ensure that all teachers are able to participate, whether or not they have students who take standardized tests.
- Only six states ensure that districts fairly compensate new teachers who bring with them relevant prior work experience.
- Not a single state encourages local districts to provide significant pay increases to teachers when they are awarded tenure, a milestone in a teacher's career that should be significant, but is instead automatic. Such pay increases would be smart policy if tenure decisions were based on a review of evidence of teacher effectiveness.
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| 10. |
State pension systems are not flexible or fair, and many are in questionable financial health. |
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States continue to provide teachers with expensive and inflexible pension plans that do not reflect the realities of the modern workforce and that they may be unable to sustain. |
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- Based on states' own reports, the pension systems in 27 states do not meet actuarial benchmarks for funding level and/or amortization period, making their financial sustainability uncertain.
- A mere three states offer teachers the option of selecting a defined contribution plan as their primary pension plan; one additional state provides only a defined contribution plan. The portability of these plans can be attractive to an increasingly mobile workforce.
- Forty-eight states make teachers wait more than three years to vest in their pension plans; nine states make teachers wait for 10 years. Teachers who leave the system before vesting do not receive benefits upon retiring; they can only withdraw their funds. In some states, teachers are not even entitled to withdraw the full amount they contributed.
- States pass on much of the expense of their generous pension systems to school districts, committing districts' limited resources to funding retirement benefits. Local districts in some states are required to contribute as much as 20 percent of teachers' salaries to the pension system and/or Social Security.
- Although retirement eligibility and benefit payments are often tied to the number of years a teacher has worked, 18 states do not allow teachers to purchase time for approved leaves of absence, such as maternity or paternity care. Another 19 states limit how much time can be purchased.
- Fifteen states use a formula to calculate retirement benefits that changes based on number of years of teaching, meaning that some years are worth more than others.
- Forty-six states pay out much more in retirement benefits to some teachers than others by allowing retirement based on years of service rather than age, at a price of hundreds of thousands of dollars in additional benefits per teacher. For example, a teacher who can retire at age 50 collects 15 years of benefits more than a teacher with comparable experience who retires at age 65.
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