Recognizing Educational Success, Professional Excellence and Collaborative Teaching The Case for RESPECT

Presentation Overview A 21 st Century Challenge- The “Why” o Why do we need to transform teaching and leading? A 21 st Century Answer- The “What” o What is RESPECT and where did it come from? How can it help us to meet the challenge facing our students and educators? o What does success look like? Next Steps- The “Who, How & Now” o Who must act to implement RESPECT? o How can we take action? o What can we do right now? 2

A 21st Century Challenge  Every child in America deserves a high quality education.  Today, students need to know and be able to do more in order to succeed.  Yet America’s education system has lost ground to other nations competing with us in the global marketplace that have continued to make progress.  Too many of our students do not exit high school prepared for college and a career. 3 “This is what we have dreamed about as educators … It is time for sweeping changes to education.” –Teacher, North Carolina

A 21st Century Challenge (cont’d)  Teachers are the most important in-school determinant of student academic success— and principals are the second most important.  Great teachers and principals nurture young people and help them grow—not only academically, but personally, socially and emotionally.  Great teachers and principals can help to close persistent achievement gaps, improve student attitudes about school and build habits of mind that can change a student’s life trajectory. 4 “The time is ripe for teachers to reclaim our ideals and change our profession.” –Teacher, New Mexico

A 21st Century Challenge (cont’d)  Yet educators are not treated like members of a highly regarded profession.  Other respected professions—such as accounting, medicine, engineering and law— share attributes that are absent from education.  These include high standards for entry into the field, opportunities to collaborate and to advance into positions of leadership, competitive compensation, continuous development, and reward for accomplishment. 5 “The time is ripe for teachers to reclaim our ideals and change our profession.” –Teacher, New Mexico

A 21st Century Solution RESPECT Individuals and organizations from across the education field are calling for a similar set of ambitious, comprehensive and transformational improvements to the teaching profession. The recent work of a number of key national organizations has embraced these shared notions of what must be done to advance the teaching profession, including:  American Federation of Teachers (AFT)  Association of School Administrators (AASA)  Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO)  Council of the Great City Schools (CGCS)  National Education Association (NEA)  National School Board Association (NSBA)  U.S. Department of Education (ED) 6 The Path to RESPECT Locations where ED held RESPECT conversations with educators in 2012

A 21st Century Solution RESPECT (cont’d) RESPECT stands for Recognizing Educational Success, Professional Excellence and Collaborative Teaching  A focus on “recognizing educational success” means that the primary aim of this initiative is to implement reforms that increase student achievement.  An emphasis on “professional excellence” means that a large part of the RESPECT project is devoted to helping teachers continuously improve their practice while recognizing and rewarding greatness in the classroom.  Finally, a focus on “collaborative teaching” means that RESPECT aims to highlight the importance of shared responsibility in creating schools where principals and teachers can support each other, hold one another accountable, and lift each other to new levels of skill. 7 “This is our moon landing moment.” –Principal, Virginia

Teachers, leaders and policymakers from across the field have embraced a shared vision of 21 st century teaching and leading that identifies seven critical components of a transformed teaching profession: 1.Shared responsibility and leadership 2.Top talent, prepared for success 3.Continuous growth and professional development 4.Effective teachers and principals 5.Professional career continuum with competitive compensation 6.Conditions for successful teaching and learning 7.Engaged communities 8 Seven Critical Components for transforming teaching and leading A strong education system is one that effectively fuses these elements to build one comprehensive and coherent system. A 21st Century Solution RESPECT (cont’d)

Three Goals of RESPECT: 1) High levels of student achievement 2) Increased equity 3) Increased global competitiveness The larger goal of the initiative is to make teaching not only America’s most important profession, but also America’s most respected profession. 9 Measuring Success A 21st Century Solution RESPECT (cont’d)

Next Steps 10 Taking Action Together  For the RESPECT vision to truly take root, all stakeholders, led by educators, must take up the cause as their own and apply the core ideas in the RESPECT vision to their unique circumstances.  Start by building a common foundation- Read the full RESPECT Blueprint, including the vision document drafted by teachers to develop a common understanding of what RESPECT looks like.

Next Steps (cont’d) 11 Taking Action Today  Take stock- Use the online RESPECT self-inventory to assess school or district strengths and weaknesses.  Begin the discussion- Convene interested teachers, school leaders, board members and /or parents to discuss the current status, goals and next steps.  Create an action plan- Develop a RESPECT plan for action and begin outreach to build key support. All RESPECT materials available at

Discussion 12  Describe successful initiatives/examples that you’ve seen implemented around one of the seven RESPECT components inside or outside of this school community.  Where they are happening?  How have the barriers been overcome in these situations?  What capacities do stakeholder groups already possess to move work forward in one of the seven critical RESPECT areas?  What can further support efforts to advance this work?  What steps can be taken by the stakeholder groups represented to advance this work? Thank you!

Appendix A  Beginning in summer 2011, the U.S. Department of Education (ED) began engaging educators directly about their profession, hosting roundtable conversations across the country.  In February 2012, Secretary Duncan officially launched the RESPECT Project: A National Conversation on the Teaching Profession. In total, the RESPECT Project engaged more than 5,700 educators in the national conversation, and the Department hosted more than 360 roundtables across the U.S.  In May 2012, ED joined seven national co-sponsors in drafting and signing onto a shared vision for the teaching profession.  In April 2013, the Department published the Blueprint for RESPECT, officially adopting a vision that now reflected feedback from thousands of educators, and called the field to take action. 13 Educator Input on RESPECT

 The RESPECT Project compels us to think systematically, rather than to search for “silver bullets” of reform and it will take comprehensive reform to reach the vision we’ve set out.  In his budget request to congress, President Obama proposed investing $5 billion in a RESPECT initiative in order to provide competitive grants to states and districts that take on comprehensive reform of the teaching profession aligned with the critical components laid out here.  While awaiting funding, the US Department of Education is committed to continuing to integrate the critical components of the RESPECT initiative into existing programs and levers. 14 The Federal Role Going Forward Appendix B