Identifying Effective Teachers Policy
Providing comprehensive reporting may be the state's most important role for ensuring the equitable distribution of teachers among schools. Pennsylvania reports little school-level data that can help support the equitable distribution of teacher talent.
Pennsylvania does not collect or publicly report most of the data recommended by NCTQ. The state does not provide a school-level teacher quality index that demonstrates the academic backgrounds of a school's teachers and the ratio of new to veteran teachers. Pennsylvania also does not report on teacher absenteeism or turnover rates.
Pennsylvania does report on the percentage of highly qualified teachers for each school and each school is identified as either high- or low-poverty or neither. The state is commended for comparing the average percent of highly qualified teachers in high- and low-poverty schools. Pennsylvania also reports on the percentage of teachers with emergency
certification statewide.
Use a teacher quality index to report publicly about each school.
A teacher quality index, such as the one
developed by the Illinois Education Research Council, with data
including teachers' average SAT or ACT scores, the percentage of
teachers failing basic skills licensure tests at least once, the
selectivity of teachers' undergraduate colleges and the percentage of
new teachers, can shine a light on how equitably teachers are
distributed both across and within districts. Pennsylvania
should ensure that individual school report cards include such data
in a manner that translates these factors into something easily
understood by the public, such as a color-coded matrix indicating a
school's high or low score.
Publish other data that facilitate comparisons across schools.
Pennsylvania
should collect and report other school-level data that reflect the
stability of a school's faculty, including
the rates of teacher absenteeism and turnover.
Provide comparative data based on school demographics.
As Pennsylvania does with highly qualified teachers, providing comparative data for schools with
similar poverty and minority populations would yield an even more
comprehensive picture of gaps in the equitable distribution of
teachers.
Pennsylvania disagreed with the statement that is reports little school-level data that can help support the equitable distribution of teacher talent. Pennsylvania asserted that its report card reflects the percentage of highly qualified teachers/not highly qualified teachers for the state, district, and school level but not by teaching area.
NCTQ's analysis acknowledges that Pennsylvania reports school-level data about highly qualified teachers. In terms of the data NCTQ recommends that states report, this is comparatively little.