Teacher and Principal Effectiveness: What Do We Know?

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

2. 1. There are much bigger differences among our teachers than we ever knew. And those differences matter hugely to students.

3. 10 Point Average Difference Between Top and Bottom Teachers 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.

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

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

6. 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.

7. 2. Impact of effective teachers swamps almost every other “intervention,” including class size reduction.

8. Cumulative Teacher Effects On Students’ Math Scores in Dallas (Grades 3-5) Beginning Grade 3 Percentile Rank= 57 Beginning Grade 3 Percentile Rank= 55 Source: Heather Jordan, Robert Mendro, and Dash Weerasinghe, The Effects of Teachers on Longitudinal Student Achievement, 1997.

9. 3. Though there are large differences among our teachers we pretend that there aren’t.

10. 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

13. 4. Good teachers are not fairly distributed.

14. More Classes in High-Poverty Secondary Schools Taught by Out-of-Field* Teachers National 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. *Teachers with neither certification nor major. Data for secondary-level core academic classes (Math, Science, Social Studies, English) across USA. Source: Analysis of 2003-2004 Schools and Staffing Survey data by Richard Ingersoll, University of Pennsylvania 2007.

15. 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 2003-2004 Schools and Staffing Survey data by Richard Ingersoll, University of Pennsylvania 2007.

16. Students at High-Minority Schools More Likely to Be Taught By Novice* Teachers 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. *Novice teachers are those with three years or fewer experience. Source: Analysis of 2003-2004 Schools and Staffing Survey data by Richard Ingersoll, University of Pennsylvania 2007.

17. 1998 by The Education Trust, Inc.

18. Tennessee: High poverty/high minority schools have fewer of the “most effective” teachers and more “least effective” teachers Note: High Poverty/High minority means at least 75% qualify for FRPL and at least 75% are minority. Source: Tennessee Department of Education 2007. “Tennessee’s Most Effective Teachers: Are they assigned to the schools that need them most?” http://tennessee.gov/education/nclb/doc/TeacherEffectiveness2007_03.pdf

19. Low-Achieving Students are More Likely to be Assigned to Ineffective Teachers than Effective Teachers Source: SithaBabu 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.

20. 4. We don’t know nearly enough about the characteristics of effective teachers…and even less about their practices.

21. In last few years, volume of studies has grown rather dramatically. And we are beginning to learn some of the basics.

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

23. But there is still a lot more digging to do, if only to understand what seem to be exceptions…

24. 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.

25. And within any “type” of teacher, there is a wide range of effectiveness.

26. Similar Effectiveness, Regardless of Certification 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.

27. 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.

28. Effectiveness More Important than Certification “The difference between the 75th percentile teacher and the 50th 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.

29. 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.

30. 5. Principals are critical—at least in part because they are the ones who attract and hold good teachers.

31. But if you think we know shockingly little about good teachers…

32. 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.

33. 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.

34. And we’ve got to provide generous support for the break-the-mold teacher and principal selection and preparation programs.

35. Why?

36. A few years ago, we got a wake up call when the 2000 PISA results were published.

37. PISA PerformanceU.S.A. Ranks Near Bottom, Has Fallen Since 2000 Rankings are for the 26 OECD countries participating in PISA in 2000, 2003, and 2006. Source: Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), PISA 2006 Results, http://www.oecd.org/

38. PISA 2003 Math Of 29 OECD Countries, U.S.A. Ranked 24th U.S.A. Source: Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), PISA 2003 Results, http://www.oecd.org/

39. PISA 2006 Science Of 30 OECD Countries, U.S.A. Ranked 21st Higher than U.S. average Not measurably different from U.S. average Lower than U.S. average U.S.A. Source: NCES, PISA 2006 Results, http://nces.ed.gov/surveys/pisa/

40. PISA 2003 Problem-SolvingU.S. Ranks 24th Out of 29 OECD Countries U.S.A. Source: Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), PISA 2003 Results, http://www.oecd.org/

41. Only place we rank high? Inequality.

42. PISA 2003: Gaps in Performance Of U.S.15 Year-Olds Are Among the Largest of OECD Countries *Of 29 OECDcountries, based on scores of students at the 5th and 95th percentiles. Source: Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), PISA 2003 Results, data available at http://www.oecd.org/

43. Among OECD Countries, U.S.A. has the 4th Largest Gap Between High-SES and Low-SES Students PISA 2006 Science U.S.A. Source: OECD, PISA 2006 Results, table 4.8b,http://www.oecd.org/

44. Fortunately, we are making some progress—especially at the elementary and middle school levels.

45. 4th Grade Reading:Record Performance with Gap Narrowing NAEP 2008 Trends in Academic Progress, NCES *Denotes previous assessment format

46. 4th Grade Math:Record Performance with Gap Narrowing NAEP 2008 Trends in Academic Progress, NCES *Denotes previous assessment format

47. 8th Grade Reading: Recent Gap Narrowing for Blacks, Less for Latinos NAEP 2008 Trends in Academic Progress, NCES *Denotes previous assessment format

48. 8th Grade Math: Progress for All Groups, Some Gap Narrowing NAEP 2008 Trends in Academic Progress, NCES *Denotes previous assessment format

49. And much of that progress is being led by urban school districts, including the one right here in Atlanta.

50. NAEP Grade 4 Reading – African American Districts Outperforming Their States in Movement into Basic (2003-2007) NAEP Data Explorer, NCES Note: Data refer to the percentage point increase in the percent of students at Basic and Above between 2003 and 2007.