Texas Teaching Commission Report: Recommendations for the Next
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2012 TEXAS TEACHING COMMISSION Recommendations for the Next Generation of Teaching Policy in Texas TABLE OF CONTENTS Letter From Chairman Moses And Vice-Chairman Nelson ......................................2 Texas Teaching Commission Members ....................3 Introduction Addressing Our Future And The Changing Nature Of Teaching In Texas ..........4 – 5 Organization Of The Report .....................................6 Teaching Continuum Recommendations Commission’s Foundational Elements And Recommendations .....................................7 – 9 Setting The Course For Great Teachers Section 1: Recruitment And Preparation ..10 – 14 Section 2: Hiring ........................................15 – 17 Supporting Professionals In Their Practice Section 3: Inducting ..................................18 – 20 Section 4: Evaluating .................................21 – 31 Section 5: Developing ...............................31 – 34 Cultivating Careers Section 6: Strategic Compensation ...........35 – 38 Section 7: Retention ..................................38 – 40 Aligning The Teaching Continuum .................41 – 42 Endnotes ...............................................................43 Appendix: Resources/Bibliography ................44 – 46 LETTER FROM CHAIRMAN MOSES AND VICE-CHAIRMAN NELSON As former Commissioners of Education, we have seen firsthand the power of great teaching and its impact on a child’s life. We are fortunate in Texas to have a dedicated group of over 300,000 individuals who have answered the call to become teachers. Our goal with this report is to help honor those individuals and provide recommendations for strengthening and supporting their profession. Texas faces significant challenges in the coming years and we need to rethink how we train and support teachers to better meet the needs of the next generation of students. The Texas Teaching Commission came together in December 2011 to begin the discussion about how to improve the training and supports for teachers in Texas. Over the course of the year we set an ambitious path to look at all facets of the teaching profession including: preparation, recruitment, hiring, induction, evaluation, development, compensation, and retention, looking for areas to improve the policy supports that are provided at the state and district levels. This report is intended to provide a roadmap for the state and districts as they think about how to address the important need to continue developing and supporting the individuals who choose to become teachers. We owe a great amount of gratitude to the dedicated team who helped develop this report, all of whom put their heart and soul into the process. The individuals and groups involved in this process are some of the most influential and successful education advocates in the state, and we are incredibly proud to have had the opportunity to convene such a robust and dynamic body. We’d like to recognize and give thanks to the numerous guest experts that joined us throughout the year including Learning Forward, The New Teacher Center, the New Schools Venture Fund, the Boston Teacher Residency, Hillsborough County Public Schools, the National Math and Science Initiative, the Colorado Education Association, Austin Independent School District, Dallas Independent School District, and Houston Independent School District. We’d also like to thank the staff at Educate Texas and Education First for their tireless work throughout this process. Finally, none of this work would have been possible without the generous support of our foundation partners. We are greatly indebted to Communities Foundation of Texas, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, The Meadows Foundation, and the Sid W. Richardson Foundation. We believe the recommendations presented in this report are an important stepping stone in enhancing the teaching profession and the quality of education in Texas. Our teachers and students deserve nothing less. Sincerely, Mike Moses, Chair Jim Nelson, Vice-Chair former Commissioner of Education former Commissioner of Education 2 TEXAS TEACHING COMMISSION MEMBERS Mike Moses (chair) Education Stakeholders former Commissioner of Education Priscilla Aquino-Garza, Stand for Children-Texas Jim Nelson (vice-chair) AVID Center/former Commissioner of Education Rod Paige, former Secretary of Education Elisa Villanueva Beard, Teach for America * Teacher Representative Jerel Booker, formerly of Stand for Children-Texas Daniel Leija, former Texas Teacher of the Year Ex-Officio Members Business Representatives Representative Rob Eissler, Chair of the Texas House Public Education Committee Michael Boone, Haynes and Boone, LLP John Fitzpatrick, Educate Texas John Montford, General Motors Commissioner Raymund Paredes, Texas Higher Lori Vetters, Inland Resources Education Coordinating Board Former Commissioner Robert Scott, Human Resources Director Texas Education Agency Ann Best, formerly of the Houston Senator Florence Shapiro, former chair of Independent School District the Texas Senate Education Committee College of Education Representative Commission Staff Jeanne Gerlach, University of Texas-Arlington Mark Baxter, Educate Texas Kelty Garbee, Educate Texas Superintendent and School Julie Harris-Lawrence, Educate Texas Board Representatives Steve Flores, Harlingen Consolidated Independent We would also like to recognize the teacher associations including the Texas Classroom Teachers Association (Holly Eaton), Association School District of Texas Professional Educators (Ginger Franks), Texas State Teachers Association (James Harris), and Texas American Federation Julian Trevino, former San Antonio Independent of Teachers (Louis Malfaro), who played a significant role in the School District Board President development of this report. Fundamental differences voiced during the Commission meetings related to the recommendations about evaluation and compensation caused the associations to decide against endorsing the final report. We regret this decision considering that their insight and perspective helped to inform much of the discussion throughout the process. * Jerel Booker served on the Commission for six months before taking a position with the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. 3 INTRODUCTION Addressing Our Future and the Changing Nature of Teaching in Texas National and state research confirms what we know intuitively — the single most important variable in student achievement is the quality of the individual teacher in the classroom. Fortunately, Texas already is focusing on teacher recruitment, training, development and retention through a range of district and state initiatives, legislative and administrative policies, grant programs, and local traditional and non-traditional K-12 and higher education efforts. However, there is room to improve. Many existing programs, policies, and initiatives operate in isolation with little alignment or cohesion between state policies and investments and local district implementation, investments, and quality control. Looking ahead, the challenge of ensuring quality teaching is magnified by the pending retirement of a generation of baby-boomer teachers in the next decade, as well as a shortage of teachers in high-need areas such as math, science, and bilingual education. With this in mind, Educate Texas, a public-private initiative of the Communities Foundation of Texas, endeavors to advance new information, strategies, and ideas on how the Lone Star State can better align various state policies and local programs with the comprehensive goal of better training, supporting, evaluating, and compensating our state’s teachers. Beginning in 2011, Educate Texas convened stakeholders from across the public and private sectors — including leaders in K-12 and higher education, business, and philanthropy — to launch the Texas Teaching Commission. The Commission’s singular charge: Take a holistic look at the teaching continuum in Texas, and recommend strategies for improvement. What emerged was a thoughtful, generative dialogue on how to improve and align various programs and practices already in place, and proffer next- generation policy recommendations that can promote dramatic improvements in teaching and learning. 4 Through dialogue with experts and the support of current research — and an examination of national, state and local trends within the Texas context — the Commission looked at key policy gaps within specific segments of the teaching continuum and developed a coherent, aligned set of recommendations for improvement in seven areas as shown in Figure A. The Commission met monthly throughout 2012 to examine elements of the continuum and has accomplished the following activities: • Reviewed existing Texas policies and national examples to identify key areas for reform; • Reviewed current research and heard from national experts regarding each phase of the continuum; • Provided guidance to the Texas Education Agency (TEA) on the redesign of the Professional Development and Appraisal System (PDAS); • Developed specific recommendations for policy reform in all areas of the teaching continuum; and • Produced this final report for policymakers, the TEA, the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) and school districts. Because of the primary role teaching plays in supporting student learning, Texans have been appropriately concerned with establishing the right policies to support teaching and learning. The 82nd legislative session (2011) introduced several bills related to teacher preparation,