WASHINGTON – Rhode Island received an “F” while Massachusetts and Connecticut each received a “D” in the National Council on Teacher Quality’s ratings of teacher-retention policies nationwide.
The top overall grade in the education policy research and advocacy group’s 2008 scorecard was the “B-” awarded to South Carolina; the state “has particularly noteworthy policies for ensuring that ineffective teachers do not remain in the classroom,” the NCTQ said. Six states “with some strong and effective policies” received an overall grade of “C,” eight received a “C-,” 30 received “a grade in the D range” and six received an “F.”
The NCTQ – in consultation with more than 150 analysts, organizations and teachers – first established a list of 15 policies considered to support the retention of effective new teachers. It then compared actual policies in each state against those goals.
One major finding was that most states do not require sufficient support and evaluation of new teachers.
“The third through fifth years of teaching represent an opportunity lost for teacher quality,” said in a statement accompanying the 116-page report. “That’s certainly when teachers begin to add real value, and it’s also when they tend to make decisions about staying or leaving.
“States can help districts do much more to ensure that the right teachers stay and the right teachers leave.
“Many states argue that their school accountability systems nullify the need to intervene, and that setting the sort of requirements that would lead to better decision-making about teachers would be overstepping their role,” Walsh noted. But, she added, “such arguments hold little sway, as states already intervene substantially on teacher issues, they just don’t do so productively. Further, the state should not overlook its responsibility to ensure that all students – especially children in poverty – have quality teachers.”
Although most states control how and when teacher tenure is awarded, they do not require and in some cases do not allow a teacher’s effectiveness to be considered in that decision, the NCTQ wrote. Among other key points, the group said: Most states have devoted little effort to developing the systems necessary for identifying effective teachers. They “cling to anachronistic compensation schemes rather than advancing differentiated pay systems.” Their benefit schemes disproportionately emphasize retirement plans “at the expense of … benefits that would appeal to younger teachers.” And policies in many states “allow far too many ineffective teachers to remain in the classroom and gain tenure, including teachers who repeatedly fail to meet the state’s own licensing standards.”
Despite its overall “F,” Rhode Island received a “D” for identification of teacher effectiveness; it “partially meets” the policy group’s goals for a state data system but does not meet NCTQ goals for tenure decisions or the evaluation of teacher effectiveness, the report found. The Ocean State also received a “D” for efforts to keep effective teachers. But it received an “F” for policies aimed at eliminating ineffective teachers.
Massachusetts received a “D” in each major category, despite a “state does not meet goal” rating for its policies regarding teacher tenure decisions.
Connecticut fared better, receiving a “D” for retention efforts; a “D” for identifying effective teachers, meeting “a small part” of NCTQ goals for a state data system and tenure decisions and a “partly meets goal” for its evaluations of teacher effectiveness; and a “C” for policies aimed at eliminating bad teachers.
The NCTQ accepts no funding from the federal government. The latest edition of its annual State Teacher Policy Yearbook was funded by private foundations including the Daniels Fund, the Doris & Donald Fisher Fund, the Gleason Foundation, the ouston Endowment, the Joyce Foundation, the Koret Foundation and the Teaching Commission.
The National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) is a nonprofit research and advocacy group dedicated to restructuring the teaching profession. Additional information – including the NCTQ’s full “2008 State Teacher Policy Yearbook: What States Can Do To Retain Effective New Teachers” – is available at www.nctq.org.
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