On April 21, the House Education and the Workforce Committee held a hearing to discuss the importance of highly qualified teachers in improving academic achievement for all students.
Citing studies that showed evidence that teacher quality is the primary school-related factor affecting student achievement, Chair John Boehner (R-OH) stated, “Students who are taught by effective and competent teachers excel quickly, while those who are assigned to the least effective teachers lag behind and often never catch up.”
Testifying on behalf of the Teaching Commission, Gaynor McCown highlighted the commission’s new report, Teaching at Risk: A Call to Action, that found: “Quality teachers are the critical factor in helping young people overcome the damaging effects of poverty, lack of parental guidance, and other challenges. The effectiveness of any broader education reform including standards, smaller schools, and choice is ultimately dependent on the quality of teachers in the classroom.” The report points to a number of flaws in the current education system, including low standards for teacher preparation and licensure, poor induction for new teachers, cumbersome school hiring practices, and lack of communication between school principals and teachers. Mr. McCown offered a number of suggestions on how Congress, states, and local school districts can provide better support to teachers. They include increasing teacher salaries and linking raises to performance in the classroom; encouraging colleges and universities to raise the standards for entry into teacher training programs; improving the teacher licensing and certification requirements; and allowing school principals to have the final say in personnel decisions at their schools.
Eileen Mitchell, an elementary school teacher in New York City, shared her personal thoughts concerning the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act (P.L. 107-110). She praised the NCLB for including a provision that allows veteran teachers to demonstrate that they are “highly qualified” by meeting a “high objective uniform State standard of evaluation” (HOUSSE), but expressed her disappointment that the HOUSSE is not mandatory. Ms. Mitchell also noted that the NCLB does not emphasize the acquisition of pedagogical skills, contending, “Any teacher will tell you that if an individual knows her subject, but doesn’t know how to teach it, she will not be successful in the classroom.” She argued that all new teachers should be required to participate in a mentoring program, especially in low performance schools. Finally, Ms. Mitchell contended that nontraditional teacher preparation programs should “provide pedagogical coursework to alternative route candidates, monitor their performance in the classroom, and provide other services to support the development of effective teaching skills and strategies.”
The committee also heard testimony from a member of the U.S. Department of Education Teacher Assistance Corp (TAC) Team, Tracey Bailey. He explained that the TAC Team’s mission is to help states identify areas where they are having problems implementing the “highly qualified teacher” (HQT) provisions of the NCLB. Mr. Bailey said that the TAC Team was most often asked to provide guidance in creating HOUSSE provisions in the states, noting that most states had not yet decided how to use the provisions or planned not to use them at all. He argued that the Department of Education should provide more guidance to the states and “should be certain that the state-designed HOUSSE matrices are truly encouraging helpful, subject-oriented staff development and not simply encouraging ‘point-earning’ activities of questionable value.”
Arguing that the public education system assigns its weakest teachers to its weakest students, Ross Wiener of the Education Trust stated, “No matter the measure of teacher quality certification, major or minor in-field, years of experience, performance on certification or licensure exams the conclusion is always the same: low-income students of color are pervasively assigned to less qualified teachers than their peers.” He explained that the HQT provisions of the NCLB require states to articulate the steps they will take to “ensure that poor and minority children are not taught at higher rates than other children by inexperienced, unqualified, or out-of-field teachers,” but noted that there are no monetary penalties or other sanctions against states for failing to meet these goals. Mr. Wiener encouraged the committee to increase its oversight of the NCLB to ensure that the HQT provisions are implemented, study the shortcomings of the law in preparation for the next Elementary and Secondary Education Act reauthorization, and explore federal legislation and financial support that could accelerate progress on teacher quality issues.
