Appendix: Full Description of Task Force Recommendations
January 17, 2014
Recruitment Recommendation #1 Full Description
(Diversity Recommendation #1)
Summary of Recommendation #1 / Design opportunities to attract highly talented students of color to the teaching profession. Use the variety of teacher pipelines to create customized cohorts of teachers (e.g. males of color, students interested in STEM, career changers, multi-lingual educators, etc.). In particular, develop a model for a local/community-based pipeline, and encourage districts to create a variety of entry points into the educator pipeline including (but not limited to) middle school, high school, paraprofessionals, parents and/or community members vested in public education. Innovative partnerships should be fostered among community organizations, institutions of higher education, and school districts to maximize the benefits of this initiative. This strategy enables districts to recruit culturally and linguistically diverse candidates by accessing their entire school community.Describe your recommendation in detail. / We recommend that DESE provides support for districts to develop
pipeline programs that would enable districts to “home grow” their own teachers.
We recommend creating various entry points into the pipeline enabling the districts to tap into multiple sources such as existing paraprofessionals and substitutes as well as community members and of course their students.
Identify examples (districts, communities, organizations, or individuals) demonstrating this recommendation. / Boston Public Schools will be launching a High School to Teacher Pipeline Program in the fall of 2013. This program directly enables the district to implement a pipeline development strategy articulated in the district’s
2012-2013 Teacher Diversity Action Plan (TDAP). The 2012-2013 TDAP supports the BPS Acceleration Agenda and aligns with the BPS Achievement Gap Policy.
This program will be Teacher Preparation Pipeline Program specifically for
Boston Public Schools students. This pipeline will support a cohort of 50
Boston high school students to successfully navigate high school, matriculate and graduate from college and return to BPS as teachers. The model utilizes a comprehensive research-based curriculum that engages students from 9th grade through college graduation. Overall, this
Initiative will raise the academic achievement of the high school students of Boston public schools; provide access to college for a higher number of BPS students; and increase the number of well-prepared urban teachers of color who are going to teach Boston school children; and improve the quality of teaching and learning in the district’s schools.
The following other districts have high school to teacher programs:
Andover Andover High School Arlington Arlington High School Brookline Brookline high School Lexington Lexington High School Worcester North High School
Define success for this recommendation. Explain why the example(s) is/are deemed successful. / BPS has partnered with the Today’s Students Tomorrow’s Teachers (TSTT) to launch this effort. TSTT is a non-profit organization that is in its 19th year of programming and has had a record of success in cultivating teachers of color utilizing a high school to teacher pipeline model. Their program data is below:
2
The TSTT high school retention rate is 90%The TSTT college admissions rate is 96% The TSTT college persistence is 83%.
The TSTT college graduation rate is 70%
96% of TSTT college graduates become teachers
Based on this data, our goal is to yield these results with our cohort of 50 students
How many educators or students served (or could potentially be served) in this example? / 50 BPS students
5 BPS teacher mentors
Does this recommendation require funding? If so, how has it been funded? What are potential funding sources? / To launch this pilot the district has secured funding for the inaugural cohort year and will be securing funding for the remaining three-year cycle. We will also be seeking external funding to support our current cohort and to launch additional cohorts.
This recommendation requires action by which group of stakeholders (Highlight key stakeholder/s executing this recommendation) Describe their role. / _State x_Districts
X Community/Organizations _ School level
_Associations x_Preparation Program
Description of role:
The district will be partnering with community based organizations and higher education partners to support with recruitment, selection, family engagement and the program curriculum.
Recommend effective communication plan options. Describe how stakeholders could be informed about this recommendation. / The district will work in partnership with our stakeholders to share this
opportunity with our students, families, school leaders, and teachers
Cite any research that supports this recommendation or the success of your examples. (Include links if available.) / Today’s Students Tomorrow’s Teachers Program link- http://www.tstt.org/
TSTT - Program Evaluation: 1994-2009 http://www.tstt.org/images/Program%20Evaluation_2010.pdf
Grow Your Own Program Literature review:
http://growyourownteachers.org/index.php?option=com_contentvi ew=article&id=130&Itemid=145#part3
Summary: See Page 1
Describe your recommendation in detail. / To plan and implement a pilot of “Grow Your Own Teacher Educator Initiative” program in Massachusetts, patterned after the plan that is currently in place in Illinois. For details of the initiative please see http://www.growyourownteachers.org/AboutUs/
Identify examples (districts, communities, organizations, or individuals) demonstrating this recommendation. / State of Illinois. There are 12 GYO partnerships in Illinois, 6 in Chicago and one each in East St. Louis, Rockford, Quad Cities, South Suburbs, Southernmost Illinois, and Springfield.
Define success for this recommendation. Explain why the example(s) is/are deemed successful. / The Grow Your Own Teachers initiative supports paraprofessionals, parents, and community members in low-income communities to become highly effective teachers through innovative partnerships of community organizations, higher education institutions, and school districts. The goals:
1. a pipeline of highly effective teachers of color and
2. improved teacher retention in low-income schools resulting in improved academic achievement of low-income students.
How many educators or students served (or could potentially be served) in this example? / In Illinois, there are approximately 275 GYO and Pre-GYO candidates attend college, in addition to full-time employment and family responsibilities. According to their website, they are excellent students with an average GPA of 3.3.
Does this recommendation require funding? If so how has it been funded? What are some potential funding sources? / Yes, this recommendation requires funding. The potential funding sources are: community foundations, college and university federal scholarship awards, low or no interest student loans, partnership with districts and educator prep programs for a student teacher/credit for GYOT participants.
This recommendation requires action by which group of stakeholders
(Highlight key stakeholder/s executing this recommendation)
Describe their role. / _X State X _Districts
_X Community/Organizations X _School level
_X Associations X _Preparation Program
Description of the role: The role of each stakeholder noted above is dependent on the size of the cohort group enrolled in the program and to the extent that the stakeholder can claim “ownership” of any part of the program. For example, associations would be involved to the extent that a CBA would allow for work release time to attend classes for a para-educator, along with an agreement to allow for assignment of credit access in exchange for practicum supervision.
Recommend effective communication plan options. Describe how stakeholders could be informed about this recommendation. / Effective communication of a GYOT plan to stakeholders would require the expertise and bully pulpit of high ranking education officials throughout the Commonwealth.
Cite any research that supports this recommendation or the success of your examples. (Include links if available.) / GYO increases diversity, and improves the achievement of low-income students.
Research shows that students of color may do better academically when taught by teachers of color (Goldhaber, 2008). GYO candidates are 85% people of color, an important detail in Illinois, which ranks the third lowest in the country in percentage of teachers vs. students of color.
http://www.learningpt.org/
Recruitment Recommendation #2 Full Description
(Diversity Recommendation #2)
Summary of recommendation #2 / Expand the acceptable out-of state educator experience requirements for Initial licenses from three full years of employment under the license sought to include educator license candidates who have successfully completed a National Association of State Directors of Teacher Education and Certification (NASDTEC) or Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP) accredited educator preparation program and who hold a comparable educator license.Describe your recommendation in detail. / The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education will support the recruitment of a diverse pool of experienced educators from out-of-state, by working directly with groups that support educators of diverse backgrounds and providing support for experienced out-of state educators in applying foreducatorlicensure. The support will include the following:
Acceptance of the Praxis exam, passing scores to be determined by the Commissioner, for an Initial license to allow districts to recruit and retain a diverse pool of experienced educators from out-of-state.
Educators who have completed an NCATE/CAEP or NASDTEC accredited educator preparation program will be waived from the three-year employment requirement for the Temporary license to allow districts to recruit and retain a diverse pool of highly qualified new educators.
The DESE will update and expand the aMAzing Educators section of the website to provide additional information geared towards recruiting a diverse pool of out-of-state educators. Updated information should include detailed instructions on the documentation required for a temporary license, testing requirements (including any reciprocal agreements), utilizing the Preliminary License as a route to teaching in Massachusetts and the requirements and routes for obtaining the SEI Endorsement.
Identify examples (districts, communities, organizations, or individuals) demonstrating this recommendation. / The following North East regional states accept the PRAXIS I & II for the purpose of granting educator licensure: Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Vermont, Maine, and New Hampshire. PARCC members of which Massachusetts is a member include New York, New Jersey and Rhode Island. These states have adopted the Common Core State Standards, and require educators to have the ability to implement curriculum outlined in the new standards. DESE should consider offering license reciprocity for educators licensed in PARCC states by the expected date of full implementation of PARCC performance based and end-of year assessment in 2015. Further consideration should be given to license reciprocity for educators licensed in states with comparable NAEP scores to Massachusetts. Implementing these routes to educator licensure would align with the routes to licensure of states with comparable/common student NAEP achievement standards.
Define success for this recommendation. Explain why the example(s) is/are deemed successful. / The definition of successful implementation of this recommendation will be based on DESE license data for out- of-state educators being granted initial licenses based on the recommendation. The long term success of implementing this recommendation will be the number of in-state culturally diverse students who become educators based on the affirmative academic experience that they have while being instructed by diverse educators. Data from Learning Pointes Associates clearly shows that educators serve as role models for professional success. Over time, a growth in the in-state pipeline is a natural outcome.
How many educators or students served (or could potentially be served) in this example? / All out-of-state licensed educators could potentially be served by the implementation of this recommendation. All students in the Commonwealth who are currently underserved by inexperienced educators, with emphasis on those students assigned to high poverty schools, will be served by increasing the number of diverse experienced out-of-state educators.
Does this recommendation require funding? If so how has it been funded? What are potential funding sources? / Yes, this recommendation does require funding to be implemented. There would be a one-time human capital costs in the Office of Educator Licensure as well as in the Office of Technology to support re-alignment of ELAR. Once fully implemented, there will be no cost.
This recommendation requires action by which group of stakeholders
(Highlight key stakeholder/s executing this recommendation)
Describe their role. / _X State X_Districts
X_Community/Organizations X_School level
X_Associations X_Preparation Program
Description of the role: Agreeing to and implementing additional routes to certification requires action of key stakeholders. Their roles are based on the action that each has to take to agree on alternative routes and to implement them based on their respective roles.
Recommend effective communication plan options. Describe how stakeholders could be informed about this recommendation. / The effective communication of this idea to stakeholders must come at the highest levels of state education administrators and policy makers.
Cite any research that supports this recommendation or the success of your examples. (Include links if available.) / Learning Points Associates: Recruiting Minority Teachers provides excellent strategies and replica models for successful recruitment and retention of minority educators.
EPIMS data from 2012-2013 shows that high poverty schools, in the lowest performance levels, hire a disproportionate level of inexperienced teachers. DESE data also demonstrates that inexperienced teachers are more likely to be assigned to teach students who are academically behind, contrasted to students who are assigned to more experienced teachers. Student assigned to inexperienced teachers have lower median student growth percentiles. Students of color and low SES status students are two subgroups who continue to show little or no progress in narrowing the academic achievement gap in the Commonwealth. Expediting license approval through reciprocity is essential to meeting the growing needs of both subgroups. Districts throughout the Commonwealth are placing employment advertisements in local, regional and national print and online media outlets. Human Resource professionals throughout the Commonwealth are recruiting through local, regional and national venues. Despite the intensive and costly recruitment efforts on the part of districts, the number of qualified candidates, particularly candidates of color, who are licensed and ready to begin work in Massachusetts does not meet any reasonable standard of successful measurement. The educator license regulations in place at this time do not support meeting the goal of the Commonwealth to increase the percentage of teachers of color to the minimum percentage set forth by the Commissioner in his charge to the MADE Task Force.
http://www.doe.mass.edu/infoservices/
http://www.parcconline.org/parcc-states
http://www.learningpt.org/
http://nces.ed.gov/
http://www.topschooljobs.org/jobs/51094-65324/SPRINGFIELD-PUBLIC-SCHOOLS-Turnaround-Secondary-School-Principals-Springfield-MA-USA
Recruitment Recommendation #3 Full Description