As states and districts transition to the more rigorous Common Core State Standards, the National Institute for Excellence in Teaching (NIET) has released a new paper, “Preparing Teachers for the Common Core: Aligning Standards for Teaching with Standards for Learning”, outlining how the TAP Teaching Standards clearly align to the Common Core. This connection allows states and districts to develop seamless and integrated systems that address both teacher and student needs. The TAP Teaching Standards, which consist of detailed rubrics describing teacher skills, knowledge, and responsibilities and used by NIET’s signature initiatives-TAP: The System for Teacher and Student Advancement and the NIET Best Practices Center-provide the necessary tools for teachers to create effective classroom practices and ensure student learning.
While the Common Core standards define what students need to know, states and districts must create their own plans for ensuring that teachers are prepared to teach to the higher standards. This requires states to rethink their professional development, support, and evaluation systems to adequately train and support teachers.
Based on more than a decade of experience in developing and implementing systems of teacher support and evaluation, NIET has found that aligning these systems with instruction can put schools on the right path towards increased teacher effectiveness and student achievement growth.
In schools implementing the TAP Teaching Standards, teachers are provided with a clear set of instructional rubrics and receive daily feedback and support to drive them to higher levels of effectiveness. Lessons are structured to address specific student needs, with the goal of getting all students to mastery. Professional development is directly tied to classroom practices, and teacher observations are conducted multiple times a year by master and mentor teachers-along with principals-who are trained and certified to administer them. Data consistently confirm that in TAP schools, teacher support and evaluation reinforce one another to ensure that teachers thrive and students achieve.
Because teachers implementing the TAP Teaching Standards have strong systems of support in place, they are well-positioned to transition into the Common Core. In Ascension Parish Schools in Louisiana, Superintendent Dr. Patrice Pujol explained how TAP’s coaching of teachers is helping them become well-prepared to meet the higher level of expectations.
Farther west at Judkins Middle School in California’s Lucia Mar Unified School District, TAP Master Teacher Ed Alarcio finds that TAP helps students balance different cultural views and student backgrounds-an exercise that the Common Core encourages.
Initiatives of the National Institute for Excellence in Teaching are improving the educational experience for more than 100,000 teachers and one million students.
For more information, please visit: http://niet.org/niet-newsroom/niet-press-releases/tap-system-provides-clearly-aligned-support-to-prepare-teachers-for-common-core/
