Teacher and Principal Effectiveness: What Do We Know? Philanthropy Roundtable Atlanta, GA September, 2009

© 2009 THE EDUCATION TRUST © 2008 THE EDUCATION TRUST 1. There are much bigger differences among our teachers than we ever knew. And those differences matter hugely to students.

© 2009 THE EDUCATION TRUST Source: Gordon, R., Kane, T.J., and Staiger, D.O. (2006). Identifying Effective teachers Using Performance on the Job. Washington, D.C.: The Brookings Institution. 10 Point Average Difference Between Top and Bottom Teachers

© 2009 THE EDUCATION TRUST Comparing the Average Student in the Classrooms of Bottom Quartile and Top Quartile Teachers Gordon, R., Kane, T.J., and Staiger, D.O. (2006). Identifying Effective teachers Using Performance on the Job. Washington, D.C.: The Brookings Institution. 10

© 2009 THE EDUCATION TRUST Students in Dallas Gain More in Math with Effective Teachers: One Year Growth From 3 rd -4 th Grade Source: Heather Jordan, Robert Mendro, and Dash Weerasinghe, The Effects of Teachers on Longitudinal Student Achievement, 1997.

© 2009 THE EDUCATION TRUST LOW ACHIEVING STUDENTS IN TN GAIN MORE WITH EFFECTIVE TEACHERS: One Year Growth Sanders and Rivers, Cumulative and Residual Effects of Teachers on Future Academic Achievement, 1998.

© 2009 THE EDUCATION TRUST 2. Impact of effective teachers swamps almost every other “intervention,” including class size reduction.

© 2009 THE EDUCATION TRUST Cumulative Teacher Effects On Students’ Math Scores in Dallas (Grades 3-5) Source: Heather Jordan, Robert Mendro, and Dash Weerasinghe, The Effects of Teachers on Longitudinal Student Achievement, Beginning Grade 3 Percentile Rank= 55 Beginning Grade 3 Percentile Rank= 57

© 2009 THE EDUCATION TRUST 3. Though there are large differences among our teachers we pretend that there aren’t.

© 2009 THE EDUCATION TRUST The Widget Effect “ When it comes to measuring instructional performance, current policies and systems overlook significant differences between teachers. There is little or no differentiation of excellent teaching from good, good from fair, or fair from poor. This is the Widget Effect: a tendency to treat all teachers as roughly interchangeable, even when their teaching is quite variable. Consequently, teachers are not developed as professionals with individual strengths and capabilities, and poor performance is rarely identified or addressed.” The New Teacher Project, 2009

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© 2009 THE EDUCATION TRUST 4. Good teachers are not fairly distributed.

© 2009 THE EDUCATION TRUST More Classes in High-Poverty Secondary Schools Taught by Out-of-Field* Teachers High- Poverty Low- poverty Note: High Poverty school-75% or more of the students are eligible for free/reduced price lunch. Low-poverty school -15% or fewer of the students are eligible for free/reduced price lunch. National *Teachers with neither certification nor major. Data for secondary-level core academic classes (Math, Science, Social Studies, English) across USA. Source: Analysis of Schools and Staffing Survey data by Richard Ingersoll, University of Pennsylvania 2007.

© 2009 THE EDUCATION TRUST Math Classes at High-Poverty and High- Minority Schools More Likely to be Taught by Out of Field* Teachers Note: High Poverty school-75% or more of the students are eligible for free/reduced price lunch. Low-poverty school -15% or fewer of the students are eligible for free/reduced price lunch. High minority school-75% or more of the students are Black, Hispanic, American Indian or Alaskan Native, Asian or Pacific Islander. Low-minority school -10% or fewer of the students are non-White students. *Teachers with neither certification nor major. Data for secondary-level core academic classes (Math, Science, Social Studies, English) across USA. Source: Analysis of Schools and Staffing Survey data by Richard Ingersoll, University of Pennsylvania 2007.

© 2009 THE EDUCATION TRUST Students at High-Minority Schools More Likely to Be Taught By Novice* Teachers *Novice teachers are those with three years or fewer experience. Source: Analysis of Schools and Staffing Survey data by Richard Ingersoll, University of Pennsylvania Note: High minority school-75% or more of the students are Black, Hispanic, American Indian or Alaskan Native, Asian or Pacific Islander. Low-minority school -10% or fewer of the students are non-White students.

© 2009 THE EDUCATION TRUST 1998 by The Education Trust, Inc.

© 2009 THE EDUCATION TRUST Tennessee: High poverty/high minority schools have fewer of the “most effective” teachers and more “least effective” teachers Source: Tennessee Department of Education “Tennessee’s Most Effective Teachers: Are they assigned to the schools that need them most?” Note: High Poverty/High minority means at least 75% qualify for FRPL and at least 75% are minority.

© 2009 THE EDUCATION TRUST Low-Achieving Students are More Likely to be Assigned to Ineffective Teachers than Effective Teachers Source: Sitha Babu and Robert Mendro, Teacher Accountability: HLM-Based Teacher Effectiveness Indices in the Investigation of Teacher Effects on Student Achievement in a State Assessment Program, AERA Annual Meeting, 2003.

© 2009 THE EDUCATION TRUST 4. We don’t know nearly enough about the characteristics of effective teachers…and even less about their practices.

© 2009 THE EDUCATION TRUST In last few years, volume of studies has grown rather dramatically. And we are beginning to learn some of the basics.

© 2009 THE EDUCATION TRUST What are we learning? What Seems to Matter Experience, but only for first year or two; Content knowledge, at least in math and science; Teachers’ own test performance. What Doesn’t Seem to Matter Traditional vs. Alternate Certification; Masters Degrees; Experience beyond the first several years.

© 2009 THE EDUCATION TRUST But there is still a lot more digging to do, if only to understand what seem to be exceptions…

© 2009 THE EDUCATION TRUST For example, while novices usually aren’t as good as teachers with at least 3 years experience…. Studies in Louisiana show that some programs produce teachers who are more effective in year one, than veteran teachers in same district; Recent study in North Carolina found Teach For America Corps Members who taught in secondary schools as effective as veteran teachers in those same schools.

© 2009 THE EDUCATION TRUST And within any “type” of teacher, there is a wide range of effectiveness.

© 2009 THE EDUCATION TRUST Source: Gordon, R., Kane, T.J., and Staiger, D.O. (2006). Identifying Effective teachers Using Performance on the Job. Washington, D.C.: The Brookings Institution. Similar Effectiveness, Regardless of Certification

© 2009 THE EDUCATION TRUST Some nuances… Traditional a little better with younger children, especially in reading; Alternates a little better with older children, especially in math; Most differences in lower grades wash out by year 3.

© 2009 THE EDUCATION TRUST Effectiveness More Important than Certification 75 th percentile “The difference between the 75 th percentile 50 th percentile five teacher and the 50 th percentile teacher for all three groups of teachers was roughly five times as large as the difference between the average certified teacher and the average uncertified teacher.” Three groups = traditionally certified, alternatively certified, and uncertified Gordon, R., Kane, T.J., and Staiger, D.O. (2006). Identifying Effective teachers Using Performance on the Job. Washington, D.C.: The Brookings Institution.

© 2009 THE EDUCATION TRUST Bottom line: Most proxies for teacher effectiveness—especially things like Masters Degrees or average years of experience-- don’t turn out to mean very much. That’s why incorporating and using value-added measures is so important.

© 2009 THE EDUCATION TRUST © 2008 THE EDUCATION TRUST 5. Principals are critical—at least in part because they are the ones who attract and hold good teachers.

© 2009 THE EDUCATION TRUST But if you think we know shockingly little about good teachers…

© 2009 THE EDUCATION TRUST You will be thoroughly despondent about how little we know about effective principals, other than that they are RELENTLESS and GOOD TEAM BUILDERS, and that ed leadership programs DON’T PRODUCE VERY GOOD ONES.

© 2009 THE EDUCATION TRUST 6. The bottom line, though, is very clear: if we are going to improve achievement and close gaps, we’ve got to act on what we know, while also digging deeper for insights and answers.

© 2009 THE EDUCATION TRUST And we’ve got to provide generous support for the break-the-mold teacher and principal selection and preparation programs.

© 2009 THE EDUCATION TRUST Why?

© 2009 THE EDUCATION TRUST A few years ago, we got a wake up call when the 2000 PISA results were published.

© 2009 THE EDUCATION TRUST Rankings are for the 26 OECD countries participating in PISA in 2000, 2003, and PISA Performance U.S.A. Ranks Near Bottom, Has Fallen Since 2000 Subject 2000 Rank (out of 26) Mathematics17 th Science13 th Source: Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), PISA 2006 Results, Rank (out of 26) 22 nd Tied for 17 th 2006 Rank (out of 26) 22 nd 19 th

© 2009 THE EDUCATION TRUST PISA 2003 Math Of 29 OECD Countries, U.S.A. Ranked 24 th Source: Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), PISA 2003 Results, U.S.A.

© 2009 THE EDUCATION TRUST PISA 2006 Science Of 30 OECD Countries, U.S.A. Ranked 21 st U.S.A. Source: NCES, PISA 2006 Results, Higher than U.S. average Not measurably different from U.S. average Lower than U.S. average

© 2009 THE EDUCATION TRUST PISA 2003 Problem-Solving U.S. Ranks 24 th Out of 29 OECD Countries Source: Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), PISA 2003 Results, U.S.A.

© 2009 THE EDUCATION TRUST Only place we rank high? Inequality.

© 2009 THE EDUCATION TRUST * Of 29 OECD countries, based on scores of students at the 5 th and 95 th percentiles. PISA 2003: Gaps in Performance Of U.S.15 Year-Olds Are Among the Largest of OECD Countries Source: Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), PISA 2003 Results, data available at

© 2009 THE EDUCATION TRUST Among OECD Countries, U.S.A. has the 4 th Largest Gap Between High-SES and Low-SES Students PISA 2006 Science Source: OECD, PISA 2006 Results, table 4.8b, U.S.A.

© 2009 THE EDUCATION TRUST Fortunately, we are making some progress—especially at the elementary and middle school levels.

© 2009 THE EDUCATION TRUST 4 th Grade Reading: Record Performance with Gap Narrowing NAEP 2008 Trends in Academic Progress, NCES *Denotes previous assessment format

© 2009 THE EDUCATION TRUST 4 th Grade Math: Record Performance with Gap Narrowing NAEP 2008 Trends in Academic Progress, NCES *Denotes previous assessment format

© 2009 THE EDUCATION TRUST 8 th Grade Reading: Recent Gap Narrowing for Blacks, Less for Latinos NAEP 2008 Trends in Academic Progress, NCES *Denotes previous assessment format

© 2009 THE EDUCATION TRUST 8 th Grade Math: Progress for All Groups, Some Gap Narrowing NAEP 2008 Trends in Academic Progress, NCES *Denotes previous assessment format

© 2009 THE EDUCATION TRUST And much of that progress is being led by urban school districts, including the one right here in Atlanta.

© 2009 THE EDUCATION TRUST Note: Data refer to the percentage point increase in the percent of students at Basic and Above between 2003 and NAEP Grade 4 Reading – African American Districts Outperforming Their States in Movement into Basic ( ) NAEP Data Explorer, NCES DistrictDistrict MovementState Movement Atlanta96 Los Angeles75 San Diego65

© 2009 THE EDUCATION TRUST Note: Data refer to the percentage point increase in the percent of students at Basic and Above between 2003 and NAEP Grade 4 Math – African American Districts Outperforming Their States in Movement into Basic ( ) NAEP Data Explorer, NCES DistrictDistrict MovementState Movement Boston1613 New York City1411 San Diego117 Atlanta108 Houston75 Charlotte20

© 2009 THE EDUCATION TRUST NAEP Grade 8 Reading – African American Districts Outperforming Their States in Movement into Basic ( ) NAEP Data Explorer, NCES DistrictDistrict MovementState Movement Houston95 Boston73 Atlanta62 Cleveland6-3 San Diego2 Charlotte1-3 Note: Data refer to the percentage point increase in the percent of students at Basic and Above between 2003 and 2007.

© 2009 THE EDUCATION TRUST We can’t go the distance, though, without strong teachers.

© 2009 THE EDUCATION TRUST “Massive Impact” “If the effects were to accumulate, having a top-quartilebottom top-quartile teacher rather than a bottom quartile quartile teacher four years in a row would be: close the black-white test score gap – enough to close the black-white test score gap…; and, twice the impactreducing class size from 22 to 16 – Have twice the impact of reducing class size from 22 to 16.” Source: Gordon, R., Kane, T.J., and Staiger, D.O. (2006). Identifying Effective teachers Using Performance on the Job. Washington, D.C.: The Brookings Institution.

For more information, visit H Street N.W. Suite 700 Washington, D.C / November 12-14, 2009, in Arlington, Va. Send a team to our 2009 Conference WHEN THE GOING GETS TOUGH: Smart Choices and Bold Action to Raise Achievement and Close Gaps