Teaching and Professional Learning

Recommended Actions

The Commission recommends actions in three areas toward managing teachers and professional learning for effectiveness:

1. Increase the supply of well-prepared teachers of mathematics and science at all grade levels by improving teacher preparation and recruitment

By the federal government, states, and school districts

• Invest in the analysis of supply and demand for science and math teachers, especially in high-need school districts and schools
• Support recruitment programs for math and science teachers; experiment with scholarships and pay incentives
• Alter certification requirements to allow qualified candidates to enter teaching by innovative and rigorous alternative routes; enable museums, research institutions, and others to become teacher certifiers
• Develop integrated programs of professional learning and quality improvement for teachers of science and mathematics; engage all teachers in professional learning that enables them to incorporate science and math learning across the curriculum
• Make policy changes necessary to create an effective talent corps for schools, including principals and teachers, especially science and math teachers; encourage the dissemination of effective human capital management practices in areas such as teacher recruitment, hiring and retention, and compensation

By colleges and universities

• Design innovative, tailored science and math preparation routes that encourage and facilitate science and math majors to enter teaching
• Study program effectiveness through evidence from the student achievement by graduates of all programs, including math and science preparation
• Follow the early career experiences of graduates and strengthen communication with schools and districts to inform preparation and support for novice teachers
• Upgrade and increase required science and math courses for all undergraduates
• Review undergraduate curriculum and instruction in science and math to determine whether teacher candidates, and all college students, are experiencing the kind of high-quality instruction that they will need to repeat as teachers
• Strengthen connections with schools and school districts to improve effectiveness through shared mechanisms, such as setting strategic goals for clinical placement, and by involving science and math faculty along with experienced teachers in programs for future and practicing teachers
• Develop innovative teacher preparation and residency programs with education entrepreneurs

By businesses, nonprofit organizations, unions, and other partners

• Experiment with strategies to draw people with strong science and math backgrounds into teaching and increase their job satisfaction
• Press states to allow alternative credentialing by museums and other institutions

By philanthropy

• Support the strategic management of human capital with an emphasis on science and math teaching by states, districts, and educational entrepreneurs
• Support research on teacher recruitment and effectiveness, especially to identify factors relevant to science and math
• Support innovative strategies for new recruitment, retention, and certification pathways for science and math teachers

2. Improve professional learning for all teachers, with an eye toward revolutionizing math and science teaching

By the federal government, states, and school districts

• Create and incentivize opportunities for teachers to experience powerful science and math learning themselves
• Cease support for professional development in science and math that is disconnected from teaching practices in schools; replace with investment in strategic and coherent collaborative offerings that link coherent, sustained professional learning, rich in relevant science and math content, to direct practice changes in instruction in schools
• Promote professional learning that engages teachers in data analysis, identification of students’ differentiated learning needs, and assessment of school-level interventions
• Hold school leaders accountable for the professional learning environment in their schools and districts
• Strengthen partnerships with science-rich institutions; use those partnerships to open new learning opportunities for educators
• Invest in sophisticated online professional development systems that facilitate learning communities and cyberlearning by teachers, along with research to enable the improvement of those systems
• Expand the use of master teachers and other strategies that strengthen practice, encourage continuous learning, and improve career satisfaction

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Recommended Actions

By colleges and universities

• Make the cultivation of STEM-capable teachers a university-wide priority, with visible board, executive, and cross-disciplinary faculty leadership
• Cease offering one-off university-designed and delivered professional development; replace with collaborative university-school designed strategies for upgrading teacher practice toward student learning outcomes
• Integrate preservice and ongoing learning by engaging skilled teachers in teacher preparation
• Share resources and assets (such as syllabi, online labs) publicly; encourage use by science and math teachers

By businesses, nonprofit organizations, unions, and other partners

• Build systems that enable teachers to use and contribute to a common knowledge base of curricular material and pedagogical techniques in science and math
• Develop programs that engage teachers in collaborating with scientists, mathematicians, engineers, museum educators, and others
• Provide learning opportunities that enable teachers to experience real-world science and math and apply to instructional improvements
• Create innovative preparation programs and teacher residency programs

By philanthropy

• Support innovative program models for ongoing professional learning in science and math that include assessment of student learning and mechanisms for improving professional learning based on evidence
• Fund research on the effectiveness of different professional learning models and platforms (cyberlearning, partnerships with science-rich institutions, teacher inquiry) on student and teacher performance in science and math
• Schools and districts need to manage human capital as part of an educational improvement strategy that takes seriously the practical challenges of raising all students to higher levels of proficiency.

3. Upgrade human capital management throughout US schools and school systems toward ensuring an effective teacher for every student, regardless of socio-economic background

By the federal government, states, and school districts

• Make higher science and math achievement the overarching goal for system improvement; structure specific improvement strategies to meet that goal
• Experiment with strategies to improve job satisfaction of effective teachers of science and math at all grade levels
• Raise compensation strategically to attract, retain, and reward effective science and math teachers; compare different methods
• Develop data systems that enable meaningful teacher assessment on student achievement
• Identify and promote leadership opportunities (such as positions as coaches and mentors) for teachers with demonstrated effectiveness in raising student achievement in mathematics and science
• Give effective teachers a more prominent voice in education policy development

By colleges and universities

• Increase and improve connections with school districts and schools to follow the experiences of graduates who are teaching and to determine what resources and tools universities might provide that would support teachers, enrich science and math learning, and raise teacher effectiveness
• Upgrade the effectiveness of teacher preparation programs by tracking achievement data for students taught by program graduates

By businesses, nonprofit organizations, unions, and other partners

• Develop new programs to assist schools and districts improve management systems and teacher working conditions

By philanthropy

• Support research on the human capital management needs of schools and school systems, especially related to science and math