Wednesday, 18 August 2010 07:45
As most are aware at this point, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and a team of peer reviewers picked 18 states and the District of Columbia to advance to the final round of the Race to the Top competition, where grants totaling $3.4 billion will be awarded in September to applicants the administration believes have the best plans for addressing the “four assurances” of adopting rigorous standards; recruiting and retaining effective teachers; turning around chronically low-performing schools; and building data systems to track student achievement and teacher effectiveness.
As a nation, our pursuit of improved teaching and learning has shifted in response to research findings and outcomes data: the pursuit of “highly qualified teachers” has transitioned to a pursuit of “teacher effectiveness.” Race to the Top (and the ESEA Blueprint as well) asks states and school districts to establish definitions of teacher effectiveness “that are based in significant part on student growth and also include other measures, such as classroom observations of practice.”
From a research perspective, most teacher characteristics and qualifications have been shown to have little predictive effect on student achievement outcomes is often counterintuitive in nature. Reform emphasis is now on robust evaluation systems that tie objective and subjective measures of effectiveness together, generating a source of rich insights to improve the management of related systems including recruiting and professional development, among others.
From a leadership and management perspective, the picture for district leaders may be even more complex and difficult to navigate. Most districts struggle with the complexity and myriad efforts that are needed to 1) reform core evaluation systems and 2) tie the rich information generated through the evaluation process to drive improvements proactively in other functions related to teacher effectiveness, including professional development and recruiting.
DMC’s fall 2010 Leadership Development Meeting will chart a process demonstrating how districts can pursue systemic management approaches to connect cutting edge evaluation systems to broader teacher effectiveness efforts. Our focus will be on aligning diverse functions, systems and data to improve overall management and coordination of teacher effectiveness components. Participants will discuss best practices of both what to do and how to do it, using DMC tools and techniques and case study discussions.
Participants will address such topics as:
