Teacher

This white paper examines the impact of blended learning in 13 schools in New Hampshire where state law mandates high schools measure learning by mastery of a subject rather than by credit hours. The report cites several ways in which blended learning can support competency-based learning, including on-demand testing, alternative pathways to learning, and personalized learning. 

This report considers teacher effectiveness reforms over the last 10 years and addresses changes in practices and policy that resulted from these reforms. The report describes how policymakers’ perception of teachers changed from viewing teachers as “interchangeable parts” 10 years ago to “the single most important in-school factor for student learning today,” and proposes that, moving forward, policymakers should focus on five main areas: meaningful evaluation of teacher performance, professional development, teacher preparation, productivity, and political strategy.

Published by the Center for American Progress, the report focuses on the need to build a more racially and ethnically diversified teaching workforce. The study looks at the obstacles that limit the supply of highly effective teachers of color and the difficulties in retaining teachers of color. The impact that the disproportionate number of teachers of color has on the growing body students of color in the United States is addressed. The report contains recommendations aimed at increasing the teachers-of-color pipeline at the federal, state, and district levels.  

This report, published by Gallup, includes data from 5th- to 12th-grade students, together with material gathered over several decades from studies focusing on the key qualities of high-performing teachers and principals. With an end goal of improving student engagement and achievement, the report looks at how principals can create high-quality learning environments within their schools and includes sections on attracting, engaging, and retaining highly effective teachers.

This paper examines whether it is possible to improve student achievement by reallocating pupils among teachers so that the most effective teachers teach a greater number of students. The paper shows that student outcomes in mathematics, reading, and science improved in both the fifth-grade and eighth-grade North Carolina classrooms examined in this research study.

Public Impact’s case study on Opportunity Culture highlights the “truly different” things Project L.I.F.T. did to redesign four schools using Opportunity Culture models and principles. The study details the steps these schools took and the challenges they faced as they prepared to kick off their Opportunity Culture models at the beginning of the 2013–14 school year.

This Public Impact case study is part of a series that offers an in-depth look at districts, charter schools, and other programs that have started using Opportunity Culture models (those that extend the reach of excellent teachers for more pay, within budget), or have experimented with similar strategies for expanding the impact of excellent teachers on students and peer teachers.

This brief—written and published by Public Impact—analyzes two secondary-level, blended learning models developed under their Opportunity Culture initiative: the “Time-Technology Swap” school model, and the “Time-Technology Swap” model in combination with the Multi-Classroom Leadership model. Public Impact calculated the savings and costs of these models to demonstrate how schools could increase teachers’ pay without increasing class sizes and or exceeding their budgets.

This research—published by the Center on Personnel Studies in Special Education— addresses four concerns regarding special education teacher induction: (1) the high attrition rate in special education; (2) the potential for beginning teachers—who are struggling to adapt to their new role—to provide inadequate services to children and youth with disabilities; (3) the increasing reliance on alternative routes to certification; and (4) the unique conditions within which special educators work.

The IRIS Center at Vanderbilt University developed this five-part, online, interactive module to highlight how to best support—and therefore retain—special educators, with a particular focus on the key steps school administrators can take to create a productive and inviting work environment.