Leader

This report, published by the Fordham Institute, studies data from North Carolina to determine how “right-sizing” a classroom—i.e., giving the most effective teachers the most students—could affect academic achievement. The report finds that when the best teachers teach larger classes and the weakest teachers teach progressively smaller classes, student learning improves (across all students, not just those who move class). 

Published by the National Network of State Teachers of the Year (NNSTOY) and the Center for Educator Effectiveness at Pearson, this report provides a vision of teacher career pathways designed to attract and retain excellent Generation Y teachers. The report reviews recent initiatives that promote teacher role differentiation, and, based on the findings, recommends strategies for creating the necessary conditions to develop sustainable teacher career pathways and make teaching a more attractive career option.

This research report, published by the Calder Center at American Institutes for Research, examines the effectiveness of IMPACT—the District of Columbia’s teacher evaluation and compensation system—which provides individually targeted and high-powered incentives linked to performance (measured by multiple scores). The report found that the program improved the effectiveness of the D.C. Public Schools’ teacher workforce, both through the exit of low-performing teachers and through the performance gains evident among those who remained.

The Central Office Transformation Toolkit—published by the Center for Educational Leadership at the University of Washington and The Wallace Foundation—provides district leaders with three tools to reform central offices and strengthen their capacity to function as primary support systems for principals as they work to improve teaching and learning.

This study, published by the Council of the Great City Schools and The Wallace Foundation, provides districts with recommendations (based on surveys and site visits) for building highly effective principal supervisory systems that are most likely to produce stronger leaders and higher student achievement. The recommendations include providing clear, timely, and actionable evaluation data to principals; and committing district resources to, and engaging external partners in, the process of developing future leaders.

This case study, published by The Wallace Foundation, delves into Denver Public Schools’ rethinking of principal supervisors, which resulted in the district hiring more people to coach and evaluate leaders, thereby reducing supervisors’ “span of control” (i.e., the number of people a supervisor manages). Within 18 months of implementing this change, principal satisfaction with human resources increased from 43 percent (prior to implementation) to more than 90 percent.

This research study, published and funded by The Wallace Foundation, focuses on six urban school districts that are seeking to enhance the principal pipeline through participation in the Principal Pipeline Initiative. This initiative focuses on preservice preparation, including selective admissions to high-quality programs, selective hiring and placement, leader standards that align with specific sites, and on-the-job evaluation and support.

This case study, published by Public Impact, examines Touchstone Education’s efforts to expand teachers’ impact on students and peer teachers. The study focuses on a small, first-year school within the charter school organization that has big plans for growth, examining how it combined multi-classroom leadership and time-technology swap to boost reading results.

This case study, published by Public Impact, focuses on Rocketship Education—a network of seven public charter schools in San Jose, California. The case study examines Rocketship Education’s staffing model, as well as its incorporation of technology into the school day to extend the reach of great teachers and obtain proven results.

In this report, the Center for American Progress and Public Impact outline four concrete actions that the federal government can take to expand student access to excellent teachers.