Implications for #Harlem schools? . . . [U.S.] Ed. Dept. Directs States to Improve Teacher Distribution (Education Week - 11/10/14) EXCERPT: The Obama administration promised over the summer that it would direct states to develop plans for ensuring low-income kids get access to as many highly qualified teachers as their more advantaged peers—a key goal of the dozen-year-old No Child Left Behind Act that has largely gone unenforced. Twenty-seven pages of new guidance released on the issue Monday appear to give states a lot of running room to figure out just what these equity plans should look like—without clear, strong federal levers in place for ensuring that states follow through. Whats more, the Obama administration directs states to focus their plans mainly on inputs—such as how many years of experience a teacher has—rather than outputs, or how effective teachers actually are at moving the needle on student achievement. (To be sure, the department contends that it isnt allowed to consider effectiveness in teacher distribution under NCLB. But that didnt stop the administration from requiring states to include teacher effectiveness in their NCLB waiver plans. More here.) . . . The equity plans are due by June 1. That gives states a longer time frame than they were initially expecting. The equity plans were originally supposed to be due in April 2015, to align with waiver-renewal applications. But the department is pushing this time frame back a month and half. The extra time is supposed to help states consult with stakeholders including teachers unions, according to a letter to state chiefs sent Monday by Deborah S. Delisle, the assistant secretary for elementary and secondary education. But the delay means that states can get their waivers renewed even if they wind up submitting a relatively skimpy or insufficient teacher distribution plan. To help states do this work, the department is also releasing data (aka equity profiles) to states to give them a picture of what their current teacher distribution patterns look like. States dont have to use this data, however, if they feel that they have stronger, more recent information at their fingertips. And importantly, it doesnt appear that these equity profiles will be released publicly, at least not initially. Instead, state chiefs will get to review them for about a month before the public can see them. That means it will be harder for researchers (and, ummm, reporters) to say now which states are doing well when it comes to teacher equity and which states have a ways to go. Some other key takeaways from the guidance: •At a minimum, state plans have to consider whether low-income and minority kids are being taught by inexperienced, ineffective, or unqualified teachers at a rate thats higher than other students in the state. Thats not really a new or surprising requirement: Its something that state were supposed to have been doing the past 12 years under NCLB, which was signed into law in 2002. [CLICK BELOW TO CONTINUE READING.]
Posted on: Tue, 11 Nov 2014 20:54:02 +0000
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