Participants
Mariana Haynes, Senior Fellow, Alliance for Excellent Education
Peter McWalters, Consultant, Education Workforce, Council of Chief State School Officers
Ray Pecheone, Director, School Redesign Network, Stanford University
Sharon Robinson, President and Chief Executive Officer, American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education

Teaching quality is recognized as the most powerful school-based factor in student learning. This does not mean, however, that all teachers produce powerful effects on student learning. Considerable evidence points to the enormous variation in teaching practice as a fundamental problem in improving high schools. The national policy community recognizes that in order for the United States to compete in a global knowledge economy, the concentration and distribution of effective teachers in secondary schools must be dramatically improved. However, fundamental policy questions remain unanswered about what approaches are best suited to ensure teaching quality.

On February 8, 2011, the Alliance for Excellent Education and the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education cohosted a webinar about an initiative launched by the Teacher Performance Assessment Consortium. This initiative holds promise for shaping a common vision of skilled teaching commensurate with the national goal of preparing all students for college and careers. Twenty states have joined the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education, the Council of Chief State Schools Officers, and Stanford University to create a common teacher performance assessment that can be used to make preparation and licensing performance based. The webinar facilitated a conversation about the pilot underway and the implications for policies to improve the quality, consistency, and coherence of teaching nationwide. The webinar included a question and answer period to address questions submitted by viewers across the nation.

A new policy brief from the Alliance, released February 8, calls for practical set of standards and assessments to measure the quality of teacher performance. “Transforming High Schools: Performance Systems for Powerful Teaching” recommends providing teachers with the quality education and ongoing training needed to greatly improve student outcomes. The brief proposes changes to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, currently known as No Child Left Behind, which would elevate the teaching profession, support robust performance assessments to reliably measure teacher competency, and encourage feedback systems to help teachers continually improve their craft.

"Transforming High Schools: Performance Systems for Powerful Teaching" (an Alliance policy brief)

February 8 press release 

This event is made possible with support from