The Coalition for Teaching Quality, a group of more than 100 national, state and local teacher, principal, civil rights, disability, rural, youth, higher education, and related education advocacy organizations has released three consensus policy papers to help inform state and district implementation of ESSA.
Building a Strong and Diverse Teacher and Principal Recruitment Pipeline
Smart investments in establishing robust and diverse teacher and principal recruitment pipelines can bring significant returns to students.
To strengthen the teacher recruitment pipeline, the Coalition for Teaching Quality recommends that policymakers:
- Invest in programs that meet local workforce needs;
- Support high-quality early opportunities for secondary school students to explore teaching as a potential career path;
- Expand investments in grant and loan forgiveness opportunities for prospective teachers; and
- Diversify the workforce.
Developing and Supporting Opportunities for Teacher Leadership
To maximize teacher impact on student and school success, accomplished teachers must have defined opportunities to share their professional knowledge and expertise with colleagues.
To increase collaboration, states and districts should establish systems of teacher leadership that formalize the sharing of expertise in order to promote professional learning throughout a school or district.
Strengthening Pathways of Professional Learning and Growth for Teachers and Principals
In order to ensure that profession-ready teachers and principals advance from novices to accomplished professionals, strong professional learning and growth systems must be in place to provide comprehensive support and tailored learning opportunities for each stage of the career.
As with other professions that provide scaffolded support and strong mentoring, this professional learning and growth system should foster a supportive school environment and should be built on the skills, knowledge, and dispositions that characterize a teacher’s and principal’s practice at each stage of his or her career.
The new papers follow the 2014 release of the Coalition’s first two policy papers: (1) A Policy Roadmap to Transforming the Teaching and Principal Professions, which outlined a framework for building a continuum of teaching excellence that begins in preparation and leads to accomplished practice and the opportunity to serve in leadership roles; and (2) Profession-Ready Teachers and Principals, which provided measures to provide every student with a well-prepared and profession-ready teacher and principal.
Read the papers here:
Recruitment Pipeline [http://bit.ly/28YA0jQ]
Teacher Leadership [ http://bit.ly/28Nlk6o]
Professional Learning and Growth [http://bit.ly/28NleLU]
