District Leader

Written by faculty at the University of Kansas Center for Science Education, this report presents a detailed and compelling analysis of the extent of the need for new secondary mathematics teachers throughout Kansas in the coming years. The analysis is intended to ground a response by Kansas preparation programs, with support from state policymakers, to ensure that they are preparing enough teachers to replace those who are retiring and placing them in the districts that need them the most.

This nontraditional program specifically trains school principals to become more effective leaders in high-need urban schools. New Leaders blends significant on-the-job training with coursework and mentoring from local educators. It includes a full year-long paid residency, with graduates placed in administrative positions in partner districts or charter schools and one more year of on-the-job professional development.

The UTeach Institute was originally founded at the University of Texas–Austin to provide a high-quality teacher preparation route for top science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) students. Now a national program replicated on numerous campuses, UTeach is a specific response to the need for increasing the number of STEM teachers in the pipeline.

The University of Wisconsin–Madison (UWM)/Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) Special Education Internship Program offers urban-focused special education in four certification tracks: early childhood, middle childhood, early adolescence, and deaf and hard of hearing. It has an extremely high retention rate among its graduates, and the principal ratings of graduates are also quite high.

The Metropolitan Multicultural Teacher Education Program (MMTEP) specifically serves the needs of diverse students in Milwaukee’s public schools. Using the Star Teacher Pre-Screener to gauge applicants’ commitment and readiness to teach in challenging multicultural schools, the program recruits a high percentage of minority candidates who are currently paraprofessionals into a post-baccalaureate alternate route.

The Education Trust developed this brief to describe the problem of the inequitable access to excellent teachers and provide policy recommendations for addressing it, including the following:

• Produce better information on teacher effectiveness and place it in the hands of those who need it.
• Require that teacher evaluations focus on effectiveness and require districts to reform hiring and placement practices.
• Provide incentives for teachers to work in schools and ensure equitable access to effective teachers. 

This study examined population data on teachers and schools in Illinois to determine changes in the level of teacher qualifications across schools from 2001 to 2006. Researchers found that Chicago schools, especially those serving the highest percentages of students from low-income and minority families, experienced improvements in teacher qualifications; however, the results were more mixed in other Illinois districts.

Using a rich data set from North Carolina, the authors found that black seventh graders are far more likely to face a novice teacher in mathematics and English than are their white counterparts (the differences are about 54 percent in mathematics and 38 percent in English for the state as a whole). This inequitable access to experienced teachers occurs within districts, more so than between them.

This report demonstrates steps that districts can take and the challenges they face in assessing teacher effectiveness as a first step toward equitable access to great teachers. The report has three main areas of focus: identifying effective teachers, using information about teacher effectiveness in human resource policies, and using information about teacher effectiveness to ensure equity. Drawing on experiences from five districts, it provides examples for state and district policymakers considering action. 

Under Ohio’s Teacher Equity Plan, Ohio districts are required to collect and publicly report the following types of data:

• The percentage of highly qualified teachers in each content area
• The percentage of highly qualified teachers in schools not meeting adequate yearly progress
• Descriptions of teacher turnover and mobility