Equitable Access to Excellent Educators: Ensuring All Students Have the Teachers They Need Copyright © 2015 American Institutes for Research. All rights reserved. Ellen Sherratt, Ph.D. - Deputy Director, Center on Great Teachers & Leaders Alex Berg-Jacobson - TA Associate, Center on Great Teachers & Leaders January 2016

The mission of the Center on Great Teachers and Leaders (GTL Center) is to foster the capacity of vibrant networks of practitioners, researchers, innovators, and experts to build and sustain a seamless system of support for great teachers and leaders for every school in every state in the nation. Mission 2

 Help education leaders at all levels of the system understand how they can play their part in ensuring that low-income and minority students are not shortchanged in their access to effective educators by:  Providing an overview of the federal Excellent Educators for All initiative  Presenting the research base surrounding equitable access  Discussing themes, examples, and lessons learned from state equity planning  Sharing practical takeaways and suggestions Session Objective 3

 How familiar are you with the Excellent Educators for All initiative?  Not at all  Somewhat  Very What is the Federal Excellent Educators for All Initiative? 4

 The Excellent Educators for All initiative required that all states develop plans to ensure equitable access to excellent educators for all students  State education agencies were required to submit “equity plans” to the U.S. Department of Education by June 1, 2015  Plans included information on the “equity gaps” between poor and minority students’ access to great teachers and the access had by their peers  Plans also included strategies for addressing equity gaps What is the Federal Excellent Educators for All Initiative? 5

 The 2002 reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, known as No Child Left Behind, called for all students to be taught by highly qualified teachers by  States also were required to create plans to ensure that poor and minority students are not taught at higher rates than other students by underqualified, inexperienced, or out-of-field teachers.  The 2006 and revised Highly Qualified Teacher plans are available at: Equity Plans 6

 Revisit the extent to which equity gaps persist with respect to poor and minority students and unqualified, out-of-field, and inexperienced teachers.  States can also look at other definitions of excellent teachers and other measures (e.g., turnover).  Consider the root causes of existing gaps.  Design or describe strategies to address root causes.  Put forward plan to monitor and assess progress in reducing any existing gaps.  Almost all plans are now approved ad available here: Equity Plans 7

 Required that stakeholders be engaged in the development of the plan:  Teachers  Principals  Districts  Parents  Community organizations 2015 Equity Plans 8

 Created the Equitable Access Support Network (EASN) to:  Provide intensive coaching to states  Create topical communities of practice for state leaders  Provide a vehicle for requesting assistance on developing equity plans  Connect leaders to resources and tools to conduct equitable access work:  Created data profiles for states to begin the data analysis process  Involved significant support from federal technical assistance groups  Involved multiple rounds of reviews of draft plans Excellent Educators for All Initiative 9

 The following student groups are less likely to have access to great teachers and school leaders, according to almost every metric available:  Students of color  Students from low-income families  Rural students  Students with disabilities  Students with limited English proficiency  Students in need of academic remediation Source: Institute of Education Sciences; data from the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights What Does the Research Say? 10

11 Source: Glazerman & Max, 2011, as shown in Institute of Education Sciences, 2014, p. 6. What Does the Research Say?

12 Source: DeMonte & Hanna, 2014, p. 4. What Does the Research Say?

 Twenty percent of American children live in poverty.  More than half of public school students are eligible for free or reduced-priced meals.  Most big cities with high concentrations of low-income students have graduation rates in the 60 percent range  Upward mobility in the United States is a dream deferred for most poor children; if you are born poor, you are likely to remain poor your entire life. Sources: Cookson, 2013, Child Trends, 2015 Poverty in America 13

 Disproportionate numbers of students with disabilities and African American youth receive suspensions; and students who are removed from school have a much higher likelihood of involvement in the juvenile delinquency system  Current trends suggest that one of every three Black American males born [in 2013] will go to prison in his lifetime Sources: Gonsoulin, Zablocki, & Leone, 2012, p. 309; The Sentencing Project, 2013, p. 1 Barriers to Opportunity 14

 There is no silver bullet to addressing these challenges; research suggests a large range of strategies are important for attracting, retaining, and developing effective teachers and principals  Therefore, local data collection & stakeholder engagement is key to determining where to begin What Does the Research Say? 15

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Most states developed very strong plans with their stakeholders States are not focusing on redistributing educators but rather are focusing on recruiting, retaining, and developing educators. Multiple states went beyond the requirements to include English language learners and students with disabilities in their analysis States focused heavily on teacher professional development, preparation, and school leadership What Have We Learned To-Date? 17

Common Strategies from Approved 2015 Plans 18

 Some innovative strategies included:  Crosswalking the equity plan with other strategic plans for improving teacher and principal quality  Using talent development or human capital management systems approaches to address all relevant policy areas and ensure the coherence across policy areas  Developing teacher leadership opportunities and teacher career ladders  Collecting new data on root causes, such as school climate data and exit surveys to better understand the reasons teachers leave high-poverty and high-minority schools  Collecting more consistent teacher shortage data and/or educator shortage predictor models to ensure sufficient supply to meet demand statewide and in particular geographic and subject areas What Have We Learned To-Date? 19

 Key challenge areas for states included:  Completing a high-quality plan within a compressed timeline  Defining and identifying data on excellent teaching and leading  Identifying root causes in the absence of root-cause data  Determining strategies that are realistic given state budgets, and that fall within a state education agencies purview  Building capacity for widespread, authentic stakeholder engagement and communication What Have We Learned To-Date? 20

 How involved have you been in your state’s equitable access planning process?  Not at all  Somewhat  Very What Can YOU Do To Promote Equitable Access? 21

 Possible action steps for your district:  Review your state’s equity plan and identify ways to collaborate with state leaders in implementing it locally and in revising it over time  Develop a local equity plan, whether or not your state requires it  Collect data on your equity gaps and on the root causes behind them  Conduct a policy gap analysis using a Talent Development Framework  Engage teacher leaders and all teachers and other stakeholders in considering how best to ensure equitable access to excellent teachers  Consider using the Everyone at the Table approach: and Equitable Access Choicework guide: nHaveExcellentTeachers_2015.pdfwww.everyoneatthetable.org nHaveExcellentTeachers_2015.pdf What Can YOU Do To Promote Equitable Access? 22

 Possible action steps for your educator preparation program:  Review your state’s equity plan and identify ways to collaborate with state leaders in implementing it in your program and in revising it over time  Coordinate with districts to admit and recruit candidates that will best help them address teacher shortages and meet their equitable access needs  Develop or refine clinical experiences in high-need settings  Incorporate cultural competency into your courses  Action steps for state leaders:  Implement your plan!  Continually improve on your plan What Can YOU Do To Promote Equitable Access? 23

GTL Center Implementation Supports 24  The GTL Center Implementation Playbook includes:  Implementation Planning Tool  Communication Guidebook  Creating Coherence and Alignment Tool  Monitoring Tool  LEA Implementation Tools

Implementation Planning Tool 25  The Implementation Planning Tool is a step-by-step tool designed to support SEAs wherever they are in the implementation process.  States can use this resource to: Assess community awareness about their state equity plan Identify a project leader and team to implement their equity plan strategies Assess current levels of implementation Clarify leading indicators of success Create a project management plan and act on the plan!

Communication Guidebook 26  The Communication Guidebook is a step-by-step guide to developing and implementing a communications plan to support equity plan implementation.  States can use this resource to:  Identify key audiences and messengers and effective communication strategies  Develop key messages  Establish a project management plan for communications  Monitor the effectiveness of their internal and external communications

Creating Coherence and Alignment Tool 27  The Creating Coherence and Alignment Tool is designed to support states to improve coherence across policies and programs and alignment across implementation of these initiatives.  States can use this resource to:  Assess coherence across state policies and programs  Improve the alignment of (1) funding streams, (2) staff roles and responsibilities, (3) data management, and (4) internal and external communications

Monitoring Tool 28  The Monitoring Tool is designed help states determine why some strategies worked and others did not and develop action steps to improve outcomes.  States can use this resource to:  Create a strong plan to monitor implementation progress  Use this plan to identify evidence of progress toward long-term goals  Take action to capitalize on successes and course-correct as needed through a process of continuous improvement

1.Research-supported implementation tips for LEAs 2.SEA support to LEAs 3.LEA strategic planning guide LEA Implementation Tools 29

Research-Supported Implementation Tips for Equitable Access Plan Strategies:  Provides research citations and research- based tips about effective implementation of common equity plan strategies for: Strategy 1. School Leadership Strategy 2. Teacher Preparation Strategy 3. Recruitment and Selection Strategy 4. Induction and Mentoring Strategy 5. Professional Learning Strategy 6. Compensation and Career Pathways Strategy 7. School Climate and Conditions LEA Implementation Tools 30

Approaches to Supporting Equitable Access:  Resource for state and district teams determining the appropriate level of state support for local implementation LEA Implementation Tools 31

Strategic Planning Guidance for Districts:  Step-by-step guide to developing a local equity plan – from stakeholder engagement to measuring progress.  Includes LEA Equitable Access Plan Template LEA Implementation Tools 32

Approaches to Supporting Equitable Access: Levels of Support 33 Level 1: LEA Autonomy Level 2: LEA Flexibility Level 3: Limited SEA Support Level 4: Intensive SEA Support

34 For each initiative or strategy, what stage of implementation are we in? Source: Fixsen, et al, 2005 Stages of Implementation

35 For each stakeholder group or leader, where do they fall on the “stages of community readiness” scale? The stages of community readiness come from Edwards et al. (2000) and are described in Fixsen et al. (2005). Source: Edwards, Jumper-Thurman, Plested, Oetting, and Swanson, 2000 Stages of Community Readiness

Creating Coherence and Alignment Tool: Steps Toward Creating Coherence and Alignment 36

Talent Development Framework 37

Understanding Teaching Conditions 38 This module, designed in collaboration with the New Teacher Center, helps participants:  Learn how teaching conditions at the state, district, and school level can create a more positive teaching and learning environment  Understand how to use teaching conditions data to improve educator effectiveness  Explore resources that support effective school improvement planning based on teaching conditions data

 A central online location for cutting- edge information and tools ( hub/innovation-station) hub/innovation-station  Resources focused on innovative strategies for the following: Recruiting and retaining great educators Rewarding great educators Extending the reach of great educators Teacher-led professional learning Offering new career opportunities and career ladders Innovation Station Online Resource 39

Questions? 40

Bohrnstedt, G., Kitmitto, S., Ogut, B., Sherman, D., and Chan, D. (2015). School Composition and the Black-White Achievement Gap (NCES ). U.S. Department of Education, Washington, DC: National Center for Education Statistics. Retrieved from Child Trends (2015) Children in Poverty: Indicators on Children and Youth. Child Trends Data Bank, Bethesda, MD. Retrieved from: content/uploads/2014/01/04_Poverty.pdfhttp:// content/uploads/2014/01/04_Poverty.pdf Cookson, P. W. (2013). Class rules: exposing inequality in American high schools. New York, NY: Teachers College Press, Columbia University. Demonte, J., & Hanna, R. (2014, April 11). Looking at the best teachers and who they teach: Poor students and students of color are less likely to get highly effective teaching. Center for American Progress. Retrieved from content/uploads/2014/04/TeacherDistributionBrief1.pdf content/uploads/2014/04/TeacherDistributionBrief1.pdf References 41

Edwards, R. W., Jumper-Thurman, P., Plested, B. A., Oetting, E. R., & Swanson, L. (2000). Community readiness: Research to practice. Journal of Community Psychology, 28(3), 291–307. Fixsen, D. L., Naoom, S. F., Blase, K. A., Friedman, R. M., & Wallace, F. (2005). Implementation research: A synthesis of the literature. Tampa, FL: University of Southern Florida. Retrieved from Glazerman, S., & Max, J. (2011). Do low income students have equal access to the highest performing teachers? Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance. Retrieved from Gonsoulin, S., Zablocki, M., & Leone, P. (2012). Safe schools, staff development, and the school to prison pipeline. Teacher Education and Special Education: The Journal of the Teacher Education Division of the Council for Exceptional Children, 35(4), References 42

Institute of Education Sciences. (2014). Do disadvantaged students get less effective teaching? Key findings from recent Institute of Education Sciences Studies (NCEE ). Washington, DC: Author. Retrieved from National Center for Evaluation and Regional Assistance. (2014). Do disadvantaged students get less effective teaching? Key findings from recent institute of education sciences studies. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Evaluation and Regional Assistance. Retrieved from National Implementation Research Network. (2013). Full implementation. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina, FPG Child Development Institute. Retrieved from implementation implementation References 43

National Implementation Research Network. (2013). Installation. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina, FPG Child Development Institute.Retrieved from Office for Civil Rights. (2014). Civil rights data collection. Data snapshot: Teacher equity. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights. Retrieved from Sentencing Project. (2013). Report of The Sentencing Project to the United Nations Human Rights Committee: Regarding Racial Disparities in the United States Criminal Justice System. Retrieved from: %20Shadow%20Report.pdf %20Shadow%20Report.pdf References 44

Advancing state efforts to grow, respect, and retain great teachers and leaders for all students Ellen SherrattAlex Berg-Jacobson Thomas Jefferson Street NW Washington, DC | 45