Improving the Distribution of Teachers in Low-performing High Schools 
Policy Briefs (PDF)
April 10, 2008
Inequitable [teacher] distribution is a problem at all grade levels, but some aspects are more pronounced in high schools.... Overall, the key to solving distribution problems is to act comprehensively, by significantly increasing the supply of teacher candidates where shortages exist, improving the recruitment and hiring process, and retaining effective teachers in low-performing high schools. Understanding the dynamics of the teacher labor market can ensure that strategies actually impact teachers’ decisions concerning where to work and how long they stay. Although states and districts have the most influence over teacher policies, federal law can also help improve the distribution of teachers by supporting and encouraging good recruitment and retention practices at the state and local levels.
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Measuring and Improving the Effectiveness of High School Teachers Issue Briefs (PDF)
March 25, 2008
Most education reformers agree that effective teaching is defined by improving student learning, but they disagree on how to measure teacher effectiveness and how to use those measurements to improve teaching. Thus far, most of the policy debate on teacher effectiveness has focused on using test scores to implement merit pay or to fire teachers, but those strategies alone will not lift teacher performance on a large scale. In order to improve high school teaching, educators and policymakers must first invest in solid, objective ways to measure a teacher’s effectiveness. Currently, many experts believe that the best method is to use “value-added” analysis, a statistical method described in more detail in this brief.
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What Keeps Good Teachers in the Classroom? Understanding and Reducing Teacher Turnover Issue Briefs (PDF)
February 26, 2008
Teachers are crucial to the success of our students. Yet many of them are leaving their schools and the profession every year, particularly in poorer, lower-performing schools. Several studies have attempted to identify why teachers leave and how to stem their turnover, but few have identified the quality of teachers who are departing. As in any profession, not all attrition is bad, but whether bad or good, it has financial ramifications. This brief explores the costs associated with teachers leaving the profession and their schools, the characteristics of those likely to leave, and what can be done to prevent unnecessary and costly turnover.
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High School Teaching for the Twenty-first Century: Preparing Students for College Issue Briefs (PDF)
September 12, 2007
Studies show that college remediation rates are high and college completion rates are low, signaling that a fundamental disconnect exists between the way that high school teachers prepare their students for the future and what students truly need to know to meet the demands of college. Decades of reform have focused on restructuring high schools or increasing course requirements for graduation, but the nation has so far failed to address the biggest factor in improving student success—the type of teaching that occurs inside the classroom. High School Teaching for the Twenty-first Century: Preparing Students for College focuses on policy-related issues concerning college readiness—meaning the course work and teaching needed to prepare students for most two- and four-year programs that lead to an associate’s degree or a bachelor’s degree, respectively. A sustained focus on college readiness can inform, assess, and improve high school teaching for the twenty-first century.
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Teacher Quality Fact Sheet Fact Sheets (PDF)
February 1, 2006
Teachers make the greatest impact on students—what they learn, how they learn it, and what they do with it. Decades of research clearly demonstrate that a quality teacher, more than any other factor, enables students to overcome obstacles to learning (like poverty) and can even erase the achievement gap. The problem is that many teachers lack the skills and opportunities they need to become high-quality educators. And those who are most qualified work in schools where students are doing fairly well on their own.
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Profiles in Leadership: Innovative Approaches to Transforming the American High School Report (PDF)
October 3, 2004
Profiles in Leadership: Innovative Approaches to Transforming the American High School is a collection of essays written by some of America's foremost education innovators, including former Virginia Governor Mark Warner, former U.S. Secretary of Education Richard Riley, and Melinda French Gates. It presents valuable perspectives from a range of influential educators, foundation executives, and public officials.
Some of America’s foremost education innovators lay out a bold vision for secondary school leadership in a collection of essays released by the Alliance for Excellent Education. Profiles in Leadership: Innovative Approaches to Transforming the American High School presents valuable perspectives from a range of influential educators, foundation executives, and public officials.
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Tapping the Potential: Retaining and Developing High-Quality New Teachers Report (PDF)
June 23, 2004
American schools spend more than $2.6 billion annually replacing teachers who have dropped out of the teaching profession. At a Capitol Hill briefing on June 23, the Alliance for Excellent Education released a new report which cites comprehensive induction, especially in a teacher's first two years on the job, as the single effective strategy to stem the rapidly increasing teacher attrition rate.
The report, Tapping the Potential: Retaining and Developing High Quality New Teachers includes federal policy recommendations, in-depth analysis of new teacher induction practices, and four case studies: Connecticut BEST, Santa Cruz New Teacher Project (California), Tangipahoa FIRST (Louisiana), and The Toledo Plan (Ohio).
Event
Press Release
Reactions PDF
Richard Ingersoll's PowerPoint presentation PPT
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New Teacher Excellence: Retaining Our Best
August 1, 2003
Out of Print
(For information on teacher retention, see Tapping the Potential: Retaining and Developing High-Quality New Teachers).
New Teacher Excellence: Retaining Our Best examines what we know about effective induction programs and offer examples of programs around the nation that might serve as models for others. It argues that by implementing effective mentoring and professional development programs for new teachers in schools across the country, we greatly increase our chances of retaining the teachers who are coming into the profession as the result of a variety of recruitment efforts. For the sake of all of our nation’s children—and in particular those at highest risk—we must not only attract excellent teachers, we must also keep them.
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