151 results found
The Ford Model T: revolutionary 100+ years ago, impractical now. Similarly, our outdated classroom model doesn't meet the needs of today's students and teachers. We explore the evidence driving schools...
What can the education field learn from Netflix? How to revolutionize staffing to better meet the needs of those you serve. Our outdated model of teaching makes it hard for...
Our classrooms haven't kept pace with innovation. The Ford Model T represented breakthrough technology in its day—more than 100 years ago—but it wouldn't serve us well today. Likewise, our traditional...
This Clinical Practice Action Guide tells the stories of prep programs, districts, and states that have made a concerted effort to build a strong clinical experience, and provides resources and...
Some suggest that teachers are "lured" out of the profession into more lucrative fields. But a new study of pre-pandemic data paints a more complex picture of who leaves the...
As districts face impending fiscal cuts and teacher layoffs, states and districts should take this opportunity to reexamine their approaches to attracting and retaining teachers—especially those who do the most...
District incentives to recruit and retain teachers will likely fall short if they lack specific attention to the needs of hard-to-staff subjects and schools. In this District Trendline, we examine...
Teacher preparation isn't a sprint; it's a marathon. And just like preparing for a long race, it requires well-planned practice, feedback, and the guidance of experts.
In March 2023, Arkansas passed the Literacy, Empowerment, Accountability, Readiness, Networking and School Safety Act (LEARNS). A recent research brief from the University of Arkansas analyzes how LEARNS has influenced...
New research found measurable differences in teacher quality between different generations of teachers—with Baby Boomers being least effective.
Non-teaching staff can have a big impact on student outcomes, yet little research explores how their turnover rates vary and what effects that could have on the school. New research...
New Research Reveals Surprising Long-Term Effects of Teacher Performance Pay on Students.
Pipelines, incentives, retention strategies, and data tracking lead to greater diversity.
Do state leaders suffer from a lack of strategy? To really connect the dots and make an impact, states need to simultaneously prioritize teacher quality and learning outcomes.
To learn about state priorities in the coming years, NCTQ surveyed education leaders, advocacy groups, and researchers across the country.
Despite robust research that shows that teachers of color increase positive academic, social-emotional, and behavioral outcomes for all students, particularly students of color, new data and analysis from the National...
Filling those hard-to-staff teacher vacancies doesn't have to be so hard. Making a few straightforward adjustments to compensation, incentives, and partnerships can change the game.
A recent working paper shows a simple hack school leaders can use to ease teaching vacancy woes: Automate data collection.
What does the research say about measuring how great a teacher is other than their students' test scores?
A four-day work week may seem like a good way to attract teachers and address tightening school budgets, but researchers say it might do more harm than good.
A new study examines a program in Dallas—Accelerating Campus Excellence or ACE—that sought to boost teacher pay for stellar educators willing to teach in high-poverty schools. Compared to similar schools...
As states quicklyshifted requirements for teacher licensure in the early days of the pandemic,some also saw an opportunity to learn from the responses they put in place.
Lack of affordable housing exacerbates the teacher staffing challenges that many school districts face.
The answer (perhaps less satisfying than policy wonks would like) is that It depends on the school context.
A look at how the nation's largest districts address planning and collaboration time for elementary and secondary teachers
The most popular District Trendline posts of 2022, with topics ranging from pay increases for substitutes to building a positive school climate
A review of school districts' parental leave policies and how these policies can help support and retain teachers
Offering paid family leave is an important way to improve quality of life for educators.
New research finds that paraprofessional support, time, caseload, resources, and professional development all play major factors in retention.
A new RAND Corporation survey asked teachers what would be the most effective strategies to recruit and retain more teachers of color.
A focus on teacherrecruitment without appropriate attention to retention is like trying tocollect water in a sieve.
We examine if and how 148 large U.S. school districts use strategic pay to recruit and retain teachers.
Salaries are one of the most powerful policy levers states and school districts can use to attract qualified, effective, and diverse teachers. However, strategic pay remains underutilized as a tool...
A new working paper provides evidence that newly credentialed teachers earn higher salaries if they enter the classroom, rather than pursuing other job opportunities.
Beyond the important areas outlined in the Secretary's remarks, we see two big challenges to the goal of access and equity to quality teachers that have yet to be addressed.
Investing in resources, such as school guidance counselors, that help shape a positive school environment can set the stage for building and sustaining a stronger teacher workforce.
Do teachers who return to the district they graduated from have a competitive edge over other beginning teachers?
An examination of incentives offered by states and large school districts.
Every now and then, conventional wisdom gets it wrong.
A look at the role that the quality and character of school life plays in teacher success and retention.
An in-depth look at whether teacher salary increases have kept pace with rising consumer prices.
Our nation's educators and students are exhausted and embattled, but not beaten.
Teachers faced many difficulties last year due to the pandemic. Concerns about teachers not returning for the 2021-22 school year weren't unfounded. We looked at the incentives that 148 large...
An analysis of state rules on collective bargaining for teachers and the content of school districts' policies across 148 districts nationwide.
Tenure, a hotly debated education policy lever, is often viewed as a component of a teacher's overall compensation package.
A new analysis by the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) examines salary data and related compensation materials from 90 large school districts to determine lifetime earnings trajectories for teachers...
For school district leaders, a crucial strategy for hiring a strong, effective teacher workforce is to offer competitive salaries.
We examine the extent to which beginning teachers are receiving any form of compensating differentials that would help increase teacher retention during the first few years in the classroom.
Many efforts to increase diversity focus on getting more teachers of color to the door of the classroom, with too little attention to what comes after.
A new meta-analysis finds a positive and significant relationship of performance pay on student learning outcomes.
As we close in on one year of the COVID-19 lockdown, we examine how resources are being used to recruit and retain effective teachers.
A recently published study sheds some light on how teacher evaluation and accountability policies might affect the quantity or quality of new teachers available to schools.
At first blush, this new study appears to confirm the well-established finding that more experienced teachers are not really much more effective than less experienced teachers. However, there's a novel...
https://www.nctq.org/blog/Testing,-testing-Are-teachers-less-likely-to-quit-when-states-stop-testing
Does removing the stress of a standardized test keep teachers in the classroom?
Unlike any other state, the majority of Texas teachersare prepared by non-traditional programs.
Teacher turnover has proven to be not only costly for schools, but also detrimental to teacher effectiveness and student learning. Still, some teacher attrition is not always a bad thing,...
Some sensible solutions sometimes turn out to be counterproductive. A prime example may exist in Washington state, which recently instituted a policy requiring new special education teachers to pursue a...
New analysis from Chelsea Coffin and Tanaz Meghjani at the D.C. Policy Center explores some of the teacher workforce data from D.C. public schools, and reports on how key education...
As school districts work out next year's instructional format and take stock of their teacher workforce, districts in a position to hire are also readying themselves for a potentially unprepared...
Although Brexit and Megxit may be dominating headlines, politics and the royal family aren't the only issues worth reading up on from across the pond.
More states are recognizing the importance of leadership roles for teachers, signaling that state policy is reflecting teachers' voices. Thirty-five states now have formal teacher leadership policies, with a net...
This month, the District Trendline looks at the role of advanced degrees in how teachers are paid.
Our drum is beating for both better base pay and much more strategic use of compensation dollars by school districts to purchase what they most need and value.
Districts report the most difficulty not only filling STEM and special ed vacancies but keeping them filled with strong, effective teachers. Given these shortages, what can districts do to recruit...
This month, the District Trendline takes the teacher salary conversation back to the basics. We take a look at how teacher salaries are structured, how much teachers make, and investigate...
In spite of a federal law requiring states to take action to ameliorate the inequitable distribution of teacher talent, many states (and consequently their districts) aren't doing much.
I know teacher evaluation is now considered toxic, but I've never been one to shy away from tilting at windmills.
How can we fix well-documented disparities in the education experiences of children living in poverty?
Some noteworthy findings from Richard Ingersoll and his colleagues in the recent examination of how the teaching workforce has changed in the last thirty years...
Not all teacher turnover is created equal. Some turnover is a good thing. Too much of it is a bad thing. The timing of turnover also matters...
The newest scare about teacher shortages focuses on the question of teacher retention...
A new study confirms, yet again, the positive benefits of students of color having a teacher of the same race.
Teacher evaluation systems, when implemented well, are coinciding with real and measurable benefits for students and teachers alike.
In most job sectors,employers use their compensation dollars to purchase what they most value.
The right incentives can motivate a student to do homework, an employee to hit a quota, and even a child to finish her vegetables.
The past decade has been marked by rapid changes in teacher evaluations. While many districts and states announced their intention to install better systems, they faced political and structural challenges....
Coverage of teacher shortages tells of real struggles faced by districts, but it only tells part of the story.
Take your eyes off the pounding surf for a moment to read my top three interesting developments worth noting.
Among the largest districts in the country, 88 percent offer an increase in pay to teachers who earn master's degrees.
Time and again research has failed to find evidence that earning a master's degree make a teacher more effective.
Student teaching is intended to serve as the opportunity for aspiring teachers to apply what they have learned from their preparation programs in real classroom settings.
Paying teachers more to work in high-need schools and subjects—known as "differential pay"—is one of the most powerful tools school districts have on hand to secure the teachers they need.
Teachers who had been getting a particularly bad deal stood up to advocate for change in their states, but while the first strikes set off others, it hasn't really gone...
NCTQ's Strategic Teacher Compensation Databurst is a study of states' strategic teacher compensation policies which includes a snapshot of all 50 states' and the District of Columbia's teacher compensation policies...
Teachers' demands in strikes across the country have varied, but there's no question that low salaries are one of the chief complaints. To provide some additional insight into what's motivating...
About 20 school districts have adopted new staffing models known collectively as Opportunity Culture, each designed to maximize the impact of great teachers. Makes sense, but does it work? Thanks...
In light of new research regarding performance pay, this month's Trendline takes a look at how a teacher's evaluation rating affects salary in some of the largest districts in each...
Even today, high-needs schools struggle to attract and, more critically, retain effective and experienced teachers. We think teacher prep programs are missing a huge opportunity to tackle this issue, through...
A new study suggests that offering performance bonuses to a smaller segment of high performing teachers than is typical in schools using performance pay may be a smart move.
Localcontext matters. It's true when it comes to teachershortages, and it shouldn't come as a surprise that it would be true whenit comes to teacher retention, too.
See how states fared on our policy goals for promoting teacher leadership in 2017.
See how states fared on our policy goals for differentiated pay in 2017.
Explore district-level data on differentiated pay from NCTQ's Teacher Contract Database.
NCTQ has long supported teacher pay for performance in school districts. Better pay can encourage the best teachers to stay in the classroom and prompt talented people to enter the...
Permit me to draw my inspiration from scripture, referencing the basic human needs of clothes on our backs, food to eat, and a shelter over our heads. How better to...
In 80 percent of the largest school districts, a teacher with an MA and five years' experience cannot comfortably afford housing payments.
Teacher salaries are always in the news, but in the last few months we've noticed that housing affordability for teachers is in the spotlight, with many school districts exploring ways...
As a growing number of states across the nation look for ways to recognize and reward excellent teachers, a new study from the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) reveals...
In 2011, Florida's legislature passed an ambitious performance pay policy that requires districts to pay their most effective teachers the district's highest annual salary awards. Recognizing the importance of this...
Backing the Wrong Horse: The Story of One State's Ambitious But Disheartening Foray Into Performance Pay is part of the tenth annual publication in the State Teacher Policy Yearbook report...
This month, District Trendline asks the question "Just how common is differentiated pay for teachers?" To answer, we look at two common types of differentiated pay: more compensation either for...
The National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) and TNTP submitted an amicus brief today in support of four Minnesota parents challenging the state's laws on teacher tenure, dismissal, and layoffs....
How can we evaluate the effectiveness of pay-for-performance compensation systems if those systems are implemented only half-heartedly? That continues to be the prevailing question, as we review yet another expensive...
No school district wants to lose their most effective teachers. But pension systems, which are under the purview of state legislatures, are one roadblock to retention. These pension systems often...
If there's one thing that research has shown us time and again, it's that being a brand new teacher is hard—and being one of their first students is not all...
For a long time, we'veheard about the damage done by teacher turnover. Often, the thinking is thatschools struggle to replace the teachers who leave with replacements whoperform at least as...
This month's Trendline takes a look at the length ofprobationary periods across districts in the TeacherContract Database and how much flexibility districts have in the decisionto award tenure.
What happens in DC has the potential toimpact districts across the entire nation.
Public School Teacher Attrition and Mobility in the FirstFive Years: Results From the First Through Fifth Waves of the 2007–08 BeginningTeacher Longitudinal Study from NCESTo round out our research recap,everything...
The 2015 State Teacher Policy Yearbook is our ninth annual Yearbook report. Comprised of a National Summary and State-specific reports for all 50 states and the District of Columbia, this...
This month, the Trendline takes a look at the role of student growth in evaluation ratings and how districts connect evaluation ratings with compensation and dismissal policies.
Results are in for the first full year of implementation of a new teacher evaluation system in Dallas, a system that the district claims to be "the most rigorous teacher...
This report presents the most comprehensive and up-to-date policy trends on how states are evaluating teachers. It also breaks new ground by providing a look at the policy landscape on...
This month's Trendline updates NCTQ's analysis in Smart Money: What teachers make, how long it takes and what it buys them and estimates how much a teacher can make over...
Today's TQB features commentary from Melody Arabo, Michigan's 2015Teacher of the Year.
Here'sa question which (as far as we know) no one has asked before: are new teachers who graduate from more elitecolleges more likely to quit?SeanKelly and Laura Northrop of the...
Back in 2007, the National Center for Education Statistics began collecting data for a study that would, for the first time, give us better data on new teacher mobility. This...
Every district HR department looks to findways to limit the number of time-consuming interviews of new teacherapplicants. A few weeks ago, Politicoran a story about "Big Data" toolsdesigned to give...
This month’s installment covers the new contracts in Sacramento City Unified School District, Baltimore County Public Schools, Billings Public Schools and Laramie School District One (WY).
Districtsoften ask NCTQ to identify the preparation programs that produce teachers whowill stay in the classroom through thick and thin. So we eagerly dove into tworecent articles, one by RichardIngersoll...
What teachers are paid matters. Many factors play a role in making the decision to become a teacher, but for many people compensation heavily influences the decision not only to...
Policy fixes are necessary to lay the groundwork for change, but it'sin the implementation of those policies where the rubber meets the road. Since 2009, a lot of states have...
While the recent landmark Vergara v. California court case focused on teachers who are or should be dismissed, the greatest portion of teachers are still those who don't stick around...
This month's Trendline takes a close look at how districts in the NCTQ Teacher Contract Database are currently implementing key aspects of teacher tenure.
We're excited to bring back the Trendline series with one of our most popular topics: teacher salaries.
In our monthly newsletter for school districts, we look at how districts are tying eval ratings, pay and layoffs to teacher performance.
In this month's Tr3 Trends newsletter, we compare teacher pay in suburbs and cities.
This report examines teacher quality policies and practices in the Dayton Public Schools and provides Dayton with a tailored analysis of the teacher policy areas most in need of critical...
This report examines teacher quality policies and practices in the School District of Philadelphia and provides Philadelphia with a tailored analysis of the teacher policy areas most in need of...
In 2012-13, the average salary in Tr3 districts for a first-year teacher with a bachelor's degree is about $39,000. For teachers with master's degrees the salary scale tops out, on...
This study looks at the policies and practices shaping teacher quality in the Oakland Unified School District. It is part of a series of analyses by the National Council on...
This month we look at changes in how teacher performance is evaluated and factored into pay and layoff decisions. Much of the shift on these issues has been driven...
Interim editions of the Yearbook provide shorter briefs for each state that include a state-specific action plan, updating states' progress on Yearbook goals and giving advice on how to prioritize...
https://www.nctq.org/publications/Teacher-Quality-Roadmap:-Improving-Policies-and-Practices-in-LAUSD
Designed as a tool to highlight what is and is not working in our local schools, the report compares LAUSD's policies with both surrounding districts and similar districts around the...
Joining the chorus of advocates calling for moving from highly qualified to highly effective teachers, NCTQ offers recommendations for the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) so...
This paper illustrates ways districts can rethink their teacher payrolls and salary schedules to find innovative ways to reward teacher excellence, absent additional funds.
A report on Boston Public School policies that have an impact on teacher quality, concluding that while the district has many smart, strategic policies already in place, improving teacher rules...
In too many school districts, principals have little say over which teachers work in their buildings. NCTQ's new policy brief explores the staffing policies in 101 school districts and points...
In this paper, the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) taps into its TR3 (Teacher Rules, Roles and Rights; www.nctq.org/tr3) database to examine district policies, some mandated by state law,...
The State Teacher Policy Yearbook provides detailed analysis of any and every state policy that impacts the teaching profession. The Yearbook is a 52-volume encyclopedia (51 state reports including the...
Staffing each classroom with an effective teacher is the most important function of a school district. Doing so requires strategic personnel policies and smart practices. This analysis reviews the Seattle...
This report, which examines the alignment of Hartford's teacher policies with its goals for improving teacher quality, represents the first in a number of similar analyses which NCTQ is undertaking...
The 2008 edition of the State Teacher Policy Yearbook provides an in-depth analysis of a critical piece of the teacher quality puzzle: the retention of effective new teachers.
The State Teacher Policy Yearbook provides detailed analysis of any and every state policy that impacts the teaching profession. The Yearbook is a 52-volume encyclopedia (51 state reports including the...
The focus of the country background reports is on the aspects of teacher policy that deal with how to attract, recruit, develop, and retain effective teachers. The report has the...