NCTQ TR3 - Teacher Rules, Roles and Rights

District Analyses:
Rethinking how to attract, retain and develop effective teachers

Enlist NCTQ's help in reviewing your district's teacher policies.

NCTQ has worked in school districts around the country to help put student needs first in contract negotiations. Our reports serve as a starting point for communities to refocus their district's efforts on teacher quality.

Specifically the reports shed a light on what policies are working well and what are not, also comparing a district's policies with those of surrounding districts and similar districts nationally. We lay out a blueprint of suggested improvements and highlight possible solutions that have been successful elsewhere.

These reports help shape teacher contract negotiations and have resulted in major reforms in urban school districts around the country.

Contact Emily Cohen at ecohen@nctq.org or 202-393-0020 x102.

How we review your district's teachers policies.
Click on the lines below to learn more.

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How the project works

We examine all relevant policies, including state laws and regulations, salary schedules, collective bargaining agreements and school board policies.

We talk with local officials, advocates, education reporters, union leaders, teachers and principals to better understand how policies play out in practice.

We collect personnel data on everything from teacher absences to performance evaluations.

After producing a draft analysis we solicit comments from school district officials and the local teachers' union. Their responses are included in the report.

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What issues we focus on

We look at the policies impacting a teacher's career, soup to nuts. Everything related to teacher human capital, including teacher assignment, tenure, evaluation, compensation and attendance is examined.

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Partner organizations

We partner with local community organizations in each city to enhance our understanding of local context and to build community ownership of the report. Our partners have spanned the political spectrum, from the ACLU and the Urban League to the Chamber of Commerce. We partner with organizations with a commitment to improving education for students.
Citywide coalitions in both Boston (Boston United for Students) and Seattle (Our Schools Coalition) formed to advocate for teacher-quality reforms in the new union contract. Both groups framed their agenda largely around our reports' recommendations.
The work of these coalitions has kept our reports alive and communities engaged. Most importantly, however, they have pressured the district to take negotiations more seriously, providing the needed political capital to push for changes at the bargaining table.

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Community and media outreach

To strengthen the report's impact we educate the local media about teacher policies that impact student achievement. We invite local print, TV, and radio reporters, as well as bloggers, to participate in a seminar about teacher quality policies. We release our recommendations to the public in a press conference, encouraging local media and community groups to use the NCTQ document as a guide for tracking the progress of the district.

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Where we work

NCTQ has worked in Baltimore, Boston, Hartford, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Seattle and Springfield, Massachusetts. We have studies underway in Miami, Denver and Spokane.

We work on behalf of the school children in each community. We do not work for the district or for the union.

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Our impact

Landmark contracts have been reached in both Seattle and Baltimore (the two cities we have worked in that have so far negotiated a new contract).

In Seattle, a new teachers' contract was ratified that eliminates the role of seniority in determining teacher assignment and requires the use of value-added data in teacher evaluations.

Baltimore reached a new agreement with its union that completely restructures teacher compensation, eliminating the teacher salary scale based on experience and degree and instead compensates teachers based on their impact on student achievement and their responsibilities in their school community.

Read our studies:

Springfield, Massachusetts Public Schools (October 2011)

Los Angeles Unified School District (June 2011)

Kansas City, Missouri School District (January 2011)

Baltimore City Public Schools, MD (June 2010)

Boston Public Schools, MA (February 2010)

Seattle Public Schools, WA (October 2009)

Hartford Public Schools, CT (May 2009)

"What NCTQ identified not only guided the work of a cross-section of collaborating organizations in Boston, but also shaped the agenda for work in districts across the Commonwealth. The specific issues that NCTQ raised have elevated the policy debate on teacher quality and informed practice in Massachusetts."

Linda Noonan, Executive Director
Massachusetts Business Alliance for Education

"NCTQ's initial deep dive into Seattle's collective bargaining agreement in 2009 triggered a citywide conversation about how we, as a system and as a city, can most effectively recognize, reward and retain great teachers. Subsequent analyses from NCTQ were a key component of a successful community-wide effort to get a dramatically different teacher contract covering the 2010-2013 school years."

Sara Morris, Executive Director
Alliance For Education, Seattle

TR³ is the nonpartisan, authoritative source on local school district policy and collective bargaining. TR³ has data from more than 100 school districts and all 50 states. These districts represent 20 percent of public school students in the United States.