"If the goal is to increase student learning, the single most productive use of additional education dollars is to improve teacher education," concludes a brief released recently by WestEd, an educational research and service agency [www.wested.org]. "Career-long Teacher Development: Policies that Make Sense" by Joan McRobbie, based on research by Linda Darling-Hammond, provides a useful description of practices and research in the area of improving teacher quality.
The brief argues that teaching in the United States is now at a juncture where the medical profession stood at the start of the 20th century. A 1910 landmark study found that, though much was known about the sound practice of medicine, most doctors did not have access to that knowledge. That revelation led to the now-familiar system of study, internships, residencies, and continuous learning requirements.
According to the brief, an increasingly diverse student population and the shift to standards-based learning are pressing for a profound change in the system for preparing teachers. The current patchwork of notions about teacher preparation is shifting to a more coherent system, which would ensure more attention to recruiting candidates likely to succeed as teachers; extending accountability to teacher education programs; increasing the use of mentors; subjecting teacher candidates to performance-based assessment with a common set of standards; and providing ongoing professional development.
The single most important variable associated with student achievement is teacher knowledge, according to the document. Data from all 50 states indicates that the strongest and most consistent predictor of a state's average student achievement level is the proportion of well-qualified teachers. This connection exists even when student poverty and limited English proficiency are taken into account. Teacher expertise accounts for about 40 percent of variance in test scores. When teacher expertise is coupled with class size reduction, the combination exceeds the influence of the home environment in predicting learning gains.
The career of a teacher is marked by a sequence of important stages: recruitment, preparation, induction and professional development. Recruitment of qualified teachers is pivotal. The cursory screening now in place, which focuses almost exclusively on academics, must be expanded to determine whether prospective teaching candidates possess "the vision, motivation, and disposition to work effectively with children, particularly in underperforming schools." Rather than waiting until they are well into their career path, programs that focus on early identification of teacher candidates would prove to be more cost-effective.
Strong teacher preparation programs attend to important elements: a solid grounding in content and how it should be taught; curriculum development and its relationship to instruction and assessment; matching content to diverse student needs and learning styles; and extended student teaching that is supervised and mentored.
To assure continued success, especially during the first few years of teaching, an induction program should provide veteran mentors, peer observation/coaching, local study groups, subject matter networks, and ongoing teacher academies with seminars tied to practice.
Professional development programs should recognize that teaching is a lifelong journey of learning. Countries such as Germany, France, Luxembourg, Switzerland and Japan recognize this and give their teachers time in each day or week when they do not work with students but, instead, plan curriculum and lessons and evaluate one another's teaching. Teachers in many countries work on professional development for 10 to 20 hours a week. Successful professional development strategies are experiential, grounded on teachers' needs, collaborative, sustained and connected to other aspects of school change.
The brief concludes with a call for structural changes in the school week so that teachers have adequate time for preparation, consultation and collaboration. To do this schools must be free to organize coherent school efforts.
It is always encouraging to see formal confirmation of policies and practices that make sense. Traditional practices, however, such as teacher misassignment, irrelevant testing, and "drive-by" staff development are not changed easily. Teachers face a situation in which more than a third of the teaching population will retire in a few years; class size reduction will require even more teachers; high-stakes assessment will be used to document results; facilities and equipment are inadequate; and, most important, the teaching profession is still underpaid and overworked.
The brief from WestEd sheds light on the plight of teachers and students, and provides an excellent starting point for the discussion that must occur at all levels if every student is to benefit from the hope and promise of America's public schools.
Justo Robles
Robles is manager of CTA's SB 395 Program.
