The U.S. Department of Education has released non-regulatory guidance to help support the nation’s educators and elevate the teaching profession. The guidance encourages states and districts to prepare, train, and recruit high-quality teachers and principals to increase student academic achievement. With the enactment of Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), states and districts have the opportunity to reimagine the way Title II, Part A funds can be used through driving innovation and building on evidence to better support educators.
ESSA provides multiple opportunities to better innovate and build on evidence with Title II, Part A dollars. This guidance highlights some of the key areas local leaders can invest these critical dollars to support the workforce through better preparation, mentorship and induction, increased diversity, and bolstering teacher leadership. The guidance focuses on the importance of aligning state strategies that support effective instruction with Title II, Part A investments to not only improve student outcomes, but sustain those improvements. The guidance offers suggestions across multiple domains:
- Multiple Pathways to Teaching and Leading: Provides ways in which Title II, Part A funds may be used to support multiple pathways into the profession, including support of teacher and school leader residency programs; teacher, principal and other school leader preparation academies; alternative routes to certification; and reform of preparation standards for approval, certification, licensure and tenure.
- Induction and Mentorship: Encourages states and districts to use Title II, Part A funds to establish and support high quality educator induction and mentorship programs that are evidence-based; designed to improve classroom instruction, student learning, and student achievement; and are implemented to increase the retention of effective teachers, principals, or other school leaders.
- Meaningful Evaluation and Support: Describes how states and districts may use Title II, Part A funds to support evaluation and support systems that continually improve instruction by relying on multiple measures and meaningful input from educators and other stakeholders as well as maintaining principles for what high-quality evaluation and support systems should include.
- Strong Teacher Leadership: Provides ways in which Title II, Part A funds may be used to support meaningful teacher leadership opportunities, leveraging the professional experience and expertise of practitioners.
- Transformative School Leadership: Describes how states can work to improve school leadership by (a) devoting a significant portion of its state activities funds to this area; and (b) considering its flexibility to reserve an additional three percent of Title II, Part A district subgrants for state activities to improve school leadership. Title II Part A funds may be used to support principal supervisors, as well as activities to support the professional learning of principals.
The guidance also discusses recommendations for using funding to promote a diverse educator workforce across the career continuum, leverage teacher expertise and leadership, and provide equitable access to effective educators.
For more, see the fact sheet here: http://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/fact-sheet-education-department-encourages-support-educators-and-teaching-profession-through-title-ii-part?utm_content=&utm_medium=email&utm_name=&utm_source=govdelivery&utm_term=
Access the full set of regulatory guidance here:
http://www2.ed.gov/policy/elsec/leg/essa/essatitleiipartaguidance.pdf
