Teacher and Principal Quality are Key to NCLB Reauthorization, Witnesses Tell Education and Labor Committee 

Friday, May 11, 2007

WASHINGTON, DC -- Educators and policy experts testified at a House Education and Labor Committee hearing today that closing the teacher quality gap is critical to improving student academic achievement in our nation's schools.

Educational leaders from across the country - including two teachers - discussed No Child Left Behind's impact on teacher quality to date. They also discussed how Congress can do more to build and elevate the teaching profession.  The witnesses endorsed performance pay, career ladders for teachers, teacher mentoring programs, using data for decision-making, urban teacher and principal residency models, and proposals for recruiting outstanding teachers in shortage subjects.

"Report after report has shown that the single most important factor in determining a child's success in school is the quality of his or her teacher," said Rep. George Miller (D-CA), chairman of the Education and Labor Committee.  "Unfortunately, the data are equally clear that low-income and minority students are much less likely than their peers to be taught by well-qualified teachers. We must ensure that every child, in every classroom, is taught by an outstanding teacher."

Valdine McLean, a former Teacher of the Year in Nevada and member of the virtual Teacher Leaders Network, urged Congress to adopt a comprehensive framework for performance pay for teachers who help students learn more over time.  She said it is critical that teachers be involved in designing any performance pay systems that are created. 

Dr. Jarvis Sanford, principal of Chicago's Dodge Renaissance Academy, the public school that posted the greatest gains in achievement of any school in the state of Illinois last year, testified that an educator's success in the classroom should be tracked over time to identify high-quality training programs. 

"We should track the success of teachers and principals as they go out into the world and link these results back to the teacher and principal training programs that prepared them.  This will help us determine which programs are really turning out great teachers and leaders," said Sanford.  He traced much of his school's success to teachers from the Academy of Urban School Leadership and his participation in New Leaders for New Schools' principal training program.

Several witnesses strongly endorsed legislation introduced this week by Miller and Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-MA) to build and elevate the teaching profession to make sure that every classroom is headed by an excellent teacher. The Teacher Excellence for All Children (TEACH) Act provides a blueprint for improving teacher quality under No Child Left Behind law. [For more details of the TEACH Act, please click here.]

"The TEACH Act proposal introduced?would put money behind programs designed to experiment with new ways of preparing and compensating teachers as well as principals," said John Podesta, president and CEO of the Center for American Progress.  "We should implement its recommendations and also seize this window of opportunity for change by moving forward with bold new ideas to address the challenges of employing an effective teacher workforce in our schools ... I recommend the TEACH Act to the Committee and hope it becomes part of the reauthorization."

Joel I. Klein, chancellor of the New York City Department of Education, testified that the TEACH Act's provision to provide incentive pay to teachers in high needs areas and subjects:  "This would complement existing New York City efforts to attract top-quality teachers to our high-needs schools ... We must reward teacher who make great progress with our struggling students." 

Joan Bibeau, a former Teacher of the Year in Minnesota, who teaches preschool and kindergarten on the Leech Lake Reservation in Minnesota: "Chairman Miller's TEACH Act recognizes the importance of giving teachers across the nation access to high-level, ongoing, high-quality professional development programs that are designed and delivered by expert practicing teach, as well as to mentoring with modeling, demonstration, weekly coaching, training, and stipends for mentors." 

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