Report Says States Squander Opportunities with New Teachers

Why States Fail to Retain Effective New Teachers

A recent report released by the not-for-profit, non-partisan National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) finds that the laws and regulations of a majority of states discourage promising new teachers from sticking with the profession, while doing little to identify and move out ineffective teachers.

The report finds that states:

1. do not require sufficient support and evaluation of new teachers, a problem since most districts rarely opt to exceed state requirements;
2. do not require or even allow a teacher’s effectiveness to be considered when granting tenure,
   although states control how and when tenure is awarded;
3. cling to anachronistic compensation schemes rather than advancing differentiated pay systems;
4. are lagging in the development of the systems necessary for identifying effective teachers;
5. place a disproportionate emphasis on providing pension benefits to retiring teachers at the
   expense of providing benefits that would appeal to younger teachers; and
6. allow far too many ineffective teachers to remain in the classroom and gain tenure, including teachers who repeatedly fail to meet the state’s own licensing standards.

NCTQ President Kate Walsh said, “The third through fifth years of teaching represent an opportunity lost for teacher quality. That’s certainly when teachers begin to add real value, and it’s also when they tend to make decisions about staying or leaving. States can help districts do much more to ensure that the right teachers stay and the right teachers leave."

Walsh continued: “Many states argue that their school accountability systems nullify the need to intervene, and that setting the sort of requirements that would lead to better decision making about teachers would be overstepping their role. Such arguments hold little sway, as states already intervene substantially on teacher issues, they just don't do so productively. Further, the state should not overlook its responsibility to ensure that all students—specially children in poverty –ave quality teachers. Every problem hasn't been solved simply because states see a few upticks in their test scores.

The 2008 State Teacher Policy Yearbook finds that state regulations are in need of significant reforms in order to improve teacher quality and offers states specific guidelines for rectifying substandard policies. Each state’s Yearbook, as well as a national summary, is immediately available for download.

Key findings include:

• States' laws ensure that teachers can gain tenure without demonstrating they are effective: States do virtually nothing to establish teachers' effectiveness in the classroom before awarding them permanent employment status—more commonly known as tenure.
• Only 2 states require their school districts to determine if a teacher is effective before they award tenure. 44 states allow teachers to earn tenure in three years or less, which is simply not enough time to accumulate sufficient data on a teacher’s performance.
• 3 states award teachers permanent status after a single year of teaching.

States are not playing their part in the identification of effective teachers: Determining which teachers will be effective before they begin to teach remains an elusive goal. The absence of predictive indicators creates a critical need to identify whether teachers are effective as soon as possible, before tenure is awarded.

• Only 23 states require that new teachers be evaluated more than once a year, a necessary component for determining effectiveness.
• Only four states require evidence of student learning to be the preponderant criterion in teacher evaluations.
• Just two states use value-added data to assess teacher effectiveness.

States are complicit in keeping far too many ineffective teachers in the classroom: Although it is local districts that hire and fire teachers, states could do considerably more to ensure that ineffective teachers do not remain in the classroom indefinitely.

• Only 13 states specify that teachers who have been rated unsatisfactory on multiple evaluations should be eligible for dismissal.
• Only half the states require that teachers who receive even one unsatisfactory evaluation are placed on an improvement plan.
• Twenty-two states permit teachers to remain in the classroom for three years or more without passing all required licensing tests.

State policies raise unnecessary barriers for advancing in the profession, and could do much more to influence teachers’ decisions to stay or go: In the areas of compensation, certification and induction, there is much more states could do to support the retention of effective teachers early in their careers.

• More than half of states do not require that local districts provide new teachers with adequate support.
• Eighteen states require districts to pay more to teachers with advanced degrees, which have been shown repeatedly to bear no connection to teacher effectiveness.
• In order to advance from a probationary to a professional license, 20 states require teachers to complete additional coursework that is not specifically targeted to improve their practice.