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Research

Academy Identifies Key Ingredients of Teacher Quality

A new book issued by the National Academy of Education, "A Good Teacher in Every Classroom: Preparing the Highly Qualified Teachers Our Children Deserve,"  identifies a number of the key ingredients to improving teacher quality and raising student achievement.

NEA has praised the book, which validates a concept that NEA has long promoted -- that a good teacher in every public school classroom is a critically important and attainable goal.

The book offers solid recommendations and, according to NEA President Reg Weaver, "should put to rest the debate about what makes a good teacher." Weaver said, "To ensure all students have good teachers, teachers need to know both their subject matter as well as how to effectively convey that subject matter to a diverse group of students."

However, there are some critical areas involving teacher recruitment and retention that remain unaddressed in this publication: the need to recruit more minority teachers; the need to increase teacher salaries; the need for financial incentives to attract and keep teachers in hard-to-staff schools; and the need to provide ongoing, high-quality professional development to all teachers.

Study Questions Link Between
Teacher Effectiveness, Student Test Scores

Researcher Haggai Kupermintz raises questions about the presumed link between teacher effectiveness and student test scores in a recently released paper. Thanks in part to the federal "No Child Left Behind" Act, more and more states are using standardized test scores to hold schools accountable.

The most influential model for many of the new and emerging "value added" assessment systems is the Tennessee Valued Added Assessment System (TVAAS). Senior Policy Analyst Denise McKeon of the NEA Research Department says in her summary of the new study that Kupermintz "shows that there are several logical and empirical weaknesses of the system and he calls for a strong research program to establish its validity."

Teacher Quality, Practice Impact Achievement

In the report, "How Schools Matter: The Link Between Teacher Classroom Practices and Student Academic Performance," Harold Wenglinksy of the Educational Testing Service finds that teacher quality and classroom practice can have an effect on student achievement equal to or exceeding that of students' socioeconomic status and other background characteristics. Among the top factors affecting student performance are a teacher's major course of study in college, diversity training, and the use of hands-on learning in the classroom. (2002)

ETS Studies Links Between Teacher Preparation, Effectiveness

The Educational Testing Service (ETS) finds that strong teacher education programs should be emulated. "Teaching the Teachers: Different Settings, Different Results," (PDF, 39 pages) looks at the effectiveness of teacher education programs by examining the links among the characteristics of teacher education institutions, their programs, and teacher effectiveness as measured by scores on teacher licensure exams. (2000)

Researcher Studies Impact of
Union Contracts on Professional Development

A study by Paul Bredeson, University of Wisconsin-Madison, examines union contracts, new unionism, and teachers' professional development. The report, "Negotiated Learning: Union Contracts and Teacher Professional Development" finds "that rethinking, restructuring, and organizational re-culturing in schools are initial expressions of a new unionism that has the potential to lead to the development of more powerful professional learning communities in schools." The study appears in the Education Policy Analysis Archives, a peer-reviewed scholarly online journal. (2001)