Understanding the Teacher Union Contract and How Business Can Support the Superintendent in Making Improvements

1. Understanding the Teacher Union Contract and How Business Can Support the Superintendent in Making Improvements ICW Business LEADs Institute | September 2010 Dan Weisberg The New Teacher Project

2. A significant achievement gap separates white and minority students. By high school, minority students are four years behind white students. NAEP Grade 4 Reading NAEP Reading At age 17, African American and Latino students read at the same levels as 13 year-old white students. Percent of Students Average Scale Score Notes: *Accommodations for students with disabilities and English language learners not permitted; Trends similar for Math. Source: Original analysis of the Education Trust based on Long-Term Trends NAEP ; National Center for Education Statistics, NAEP Data Explorer, http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/nde, NAEP 2004 Trends in Academic Progress

3. Research has shown that effective teachers are the solution. Dallas students who start 2nd grade at about the same level of math achievement… …finish 5th grade math at dramatically different levels depending on the quality of their teachers. After 3 EFFECTIVE Teachers 50 After 3 INEFFECTIVE Teachers Original analysis by the Education Trust. Source: Heather Jordan, Robert Mendro, and Dash Weerasinghe, The Effects of Teachers on Longitudinal Student Achievement, 1997.

4. Certification Has a One-Point Impact on Achievement Source: Gordon, Kane, Staiger, Identifying Effective Teachers Using Performance on the Job, The Hamilton Project, Brookings Institution, April 2006.

5. Two Years of Experience Has a Four-Point Impact

6. Impact of Effective Teachers is Ten Points

7. Replacing Low Performers Can Drive Up Student Achievement Replacing the typical bottom-quartile teacher with the median teacher would have a larger impact on student achievement than replacing the typical uncertified teacher with the typical certified teacher or replacing the typical novice teacher with the typical third-year teacher Change in Percentile Rank New York, Math, Grades 4 - 6 Source: Thomas Kame, Jonah Rockoff, and Douglas Staiger, “What Does Certification Tell Us About Teacher Effectiveness: Evidence from New York City (2006)

8. Dramatic improvements in student achievement cannot occur without a sustained and strategic focus on maximizing teacher effectiveness. 5 Boost effectiveness of all teachers through effective evaluation and targeted professional development. Goals for Optimizing Teacher Effectiveness 2 Optimize new teacher supply by hiring from preparation programs whose teachers consistently achieve better student outcomes. 1 Retain and leverage most effective teachers. 3 Teacher Effectiveness in Improving Student Achievement 5 4 Improve or exit persistently less effective teachers and replace with more effective teachers. Prioritize effective teachers for high-need students. Current teacher performance Potential teacher performance

9. What would it take to get breakthrough performance improvement? Hypothetical Situation • A district uses “years of growth” as its primary measure of student learning. • Currently, the district’s teachers average 0.75 years of growth. • 75th percentile: 0.9 years • 25th percentile: 0.6 years • The district wants to boost average effectiveness so that at least 4 out of 5 teacher get 1.0 years of growth. 1.0 0.75 Years of Growth

10. Achieving breakthrough results requires movement in all three levers (performance improvement, retention of more effective teachers, and improvement or replacement of less effective teachers). • Scenario 1 • Incentives to boost retention of top-quartile and performance of lower-quartiles • Tailored and effective PD for lower quartiles • Performance management policies to drive outplacement of teachers who do not improve • Tenure for those who repeatedly generate 1 year growth 30% Improvement 1.0 years • Scenario 2 • All the above, plus: • More attractive incentives • More ambitious performance management policies 40% Improvement 1.1 years 20%tile=1.0 years

11. To realize sustainable improvement, effective teaching must be the guiding concern behind all elements of a district’s human capital system. An effective teacher in every classroom Working Conditions Recruitment School- Level Human Cap. Mgmnt. Selection Effectiveness Management Optimize effectiveness of teacher workforce. CORE METRICS Talent Pipeline Create supply of effective teachers to fill all vacancies. CORE METRIC Number and percentage of new teachers who demonstrate effectiveness above a target threshold Retention / Dismissal Training / Certification Compensation Hiring / Placement Evaluation / Prof. Dev. On- Boarding Measures of student learning

12. When is teacher effectiveness taken into account?

13. Teacher Evaluation/Tenure/Due Process

14. 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

15. The Widget Effect in Teacher Evaluation: Summary of Findings

16. When multiple ratings are available, teachers tend to be assigned the highest ratings and are very rarely assigned poor ratings.

17. In districts that use binary “Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory” rating systems, the “Unsatisfactory” rating is almost never used. Evaluation Ratings for Tenured Teachers in Districts with Binary Rating Systems

18. Teacher Evaluation – Teacher/Principal Views Teachers and principals agree that poor instruction is pervasive. “Are there tenured/non-probationary teachers in your school who deliver poor instruction?” (Percent responding “Yes”) Percent of All Ratings that Indicated “Unsatisfactory” Performance Source: TNTP survey of 7,318 teachers across 4 sites conducted February to April 2009

19. Teacher Evaluation – Dismissal DataDismissal for poor instructional performance virtually never occurs. Frequency of Teacher Dismissals for Performance (Non-Probationary Teachers)

20. Teachers report not enough is being done to recognize and retain top performers as measured by their impact on student learning. 59% of teachers report their district is not doing enough to identify, recognize, compensate, promote and retain the most effective teachers as measured by their impact on student learning. “All the good quality teachers leave the district after just a few years. They need more incentive to stay.” “Some sort of recognition or praise would be nice. Those doing a good or great job are never told so.” “If you pay the shining stars the same as the slackers, you will dim the shining stars and reinforce the sloth of the slackers.” “I, and others, work hard because we have a conscience, but I don't think [the district] sees us as any different than the lower performing teachers. Teachers who work hard receive very little praise or notice.” TNTP survey of 7,318 teachers across four sites conducted May 2008 to April 2009

21. Weak evaluation practices and systems mean that many teachers receive little meaningful feedback. 39% of Denver teachers who had a development area identified on their most recent evaluation “do not know” which performance standard they failed to meet. Source1: TNTP survey of 15,176 teachers across 12 sites conducted May 2008 to April 2009 Source2: TNTP survey of 1,863 Denver Public School teachers conducted November to December 2008

22. Our recommendations are a call to action for school districts to move beyond treating teachers like widgets. ADOPT acomprehensive performance evaluation system that fairly, accurately and credibly differentiates teachers based on their effectiveness in promoting student achievement and provides targeted professional development to help them improve. TRAIN administrators and other evaluators in the teacher performance evaluation system and hold them accountable for using it effectively. INTEGRATE the performance evaluation system with critical human capital policies and functions such as teacher assignment, professional development, compensation, retention and dismissal. ADDRESSconsistentlyineffective teaching through dismissal policies that provide lower-stakes options for ineffective teachers to exit the district and a system of due process that is fair but efficient. RECOMMENDATIONS 1 2 “Education reform will go nowhere until the states are forced to revamp corrupt teacher evaluation systems that rate a vast majority of teachers as ‘excellent,’ even in schools where children learn nothing.” Editorial (6.10.09) 3 4

23. Teacher Excessing/Layoff

24. Teacher Excessing and Layoff: Teacher/Principal ViewsThough excessing and layoff are nearly always done based on seniority, teachers and principals support additional factors being used. “In [District Name], length of service teaching (seniority) in the district determines who should be laid off during a Reduction in Force (RIF). Should additional factors be considered?” Teachers Principals 74% Yes 98% *Answer choices: Yes or No Source: TNTP survey conducted in February 2009 of 1,673 teachers and 61 principals. DRAFT

25. Roles for Business Community in Contract Reform • Funding Research in Advance of Negotiations • Teacher Impact on Student Achievement • Differential Retention Rates • Alignment of District Investments with Teacher Effectiveness • Spotlighting Key Issues in Advance of Negotiations • Lobbying for State Statutory/Regulatory Reform to Promote Contract Reform Goals • Impact on Student Achievement as Preponderant Criterion in Teacher Evaluation • Public Accountability During and After Negotiations • Providing Alternative Views to Parents • Strategic Support for School Funding

26. The Obama administration and Secretary Duncan have made teacher evaluation and support top priorities. “These policies were created over the past century to protect the rights of teachers but they have produced an industrial factory model of education that treats all teachers like interchangeable widgets. “A recent report from The New Teacher Project found that almost all teachers are rated the same.  Who in their right mind really believes that?  We need to work together to change this…. “It’s time we all admit that just as our testing system is deeply flawed – so is our teacher evaluation system – and the losers are not just the children.  When great teachers are unrecognized and unrewarded – when struggling teachers are unsupported -- and when failing teachers are unaddressed – the teaching profession is damaged.” - Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, address to the National Education Association, July 2009

27. Race to the Top applications reflect a focus on teacher effectiveness Race to the Top “W “We will integrate Race to the Top (R2T) resources and requirements with our efforts to raise standards and assessments, refine and enhance the use of data and tools, revamp human capital practices, and expand our robust turnaround approach to ensure that an effective teacher is in every classroom and an effective principal leads every school..” Louisiana Phase II Application “The RIDE Strategic Plan is based on the following theory of action: • All students will achieve at high levels when we have an effective teacher in every classroom and an effective leader in every school; and • Our teachers and school leaders will be most effective when they receive consistent and effective support, and work within a system of policies and resources that is based on student needs.” Rhode Island Phase II Application

28. Secretary Duncan personally advances the cause of reform of teacher evaluation systems and states begin to take action. Illinois General Assembly Performance Evaluation Reform Act (SB 315)Passed January 2010 Sec. Arne Duncan NEA Today Action & AFT's American Educator December 2009 “No area of the teaching profession is more plainly broken today than that of teacher evaluation and professional development... In district after district, more than 95% of teachers are rated as good or superior, even in schools that are chronically under-performing… Worse yet, evaluations typically fail to take any account of a teacher's impact on student learning. As a result, great teachers don't get recognized, don't get rewarded, and don't help their peers grow.” “Many existing district performance evaluation systems fail to adequately distinguish between effective and ineffective teachers and principals. A recent study of evaluation systems in 3 of the largest Illinois districts found that …92.6% of teachers were rated ‘superior’ or ‘excellent.’ Performance evaluation systems must assess professional competencies as well as student growth. [They must] contribute to the development of staff and improved student  achievement outcomes.”

29. So far, 12 states have responded to Race to the Top by passing legislation to improve teacher evaluations and reverse the widget effect. States passing legislation substantially improving their teacher evaluation systems: 1 in 4 U.S. students stand to benefit from the changes. CT DE

30. In August 2009, just four states required that a teacher’s evaluation be based primarily on student achievement—the most important indicator of a teacher’s impact. States requiring student achievement to be the “preponderant criteria” in a teacher’s evaluation (2009): Source: NCTQ 2009 State Policy Yearbook.

31. Today, 11 states require that student achievement count for at least 50 percent of teachers’ evaluations. States submitting R2T applications requiring student growth to make up 50% of a teacher’s evaluation: D.C.

32. In 2009, five states had data firewalls – CA, IN, NV, NY, WI – making it illegal to link student achievement data and teacher evaluations. States prohibiting the use of student data in teacher evolutions (2009): 1 in 5teachers could not legally be evaluated on their ability to advance the core mission of our public schools: helping students learn.

33. Today, all firewalls have been eliminated or allowed to expire. States prohibiting the use of student data in teacher evolutions: 14.3million students stand to benefit from the changes.

34. Today, 13 states and most of the largest school districts still use outdated, quality-blind rules to make decisions about teacher layoffs. 75% of the 100 largest districts use seniority to determine whether a teacher should be laid off. Source: Teacher Layoffs: Rethinking “Last-Hired, First-Fired” Policies, NCTQ, 2010

35. But as more and more teacher layoffs become necessary, states and districts are starting to change their rules to make teacher effectiveness a factor. D.C. Indianapolis Rules changed Action pending