VOLUME 2
ISSUE 5
Inside
This Issue
New Study
Reveals Teacher Salaries Stagnant
No Child Left Behind
The Condition of
Education 2005
Teachers Matter:
Attracting, Developing and Retaining Effective Teachers
Quick
Links
State
by State...
This
Policy Brief is developed by the National
Center for Teacher Education of the Maricopa Community Colleges.
Please direct any comments or submissions to:
Dr. Cheri St.
Arnauld
Executive Director,
National Association of Community College Teacher Education Programs/
National Director of Teacher Education Programs
2411 W. 14th Street
Tempe, AZ 85281
Phone: 480.731.8760
Fax: 480.731.8786
NACCTEP is very
interested in your feedback and ideas! Please email
us with policy issues you would like to see discussed in future
briefs.
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Special Edition
Policy Brief- Accreditation & Certification
Volume 1, Issue 5
Volume 1, Issue 6
Volume 1, Issue 7
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Volume 2, Issue 4
Volume 2, Issue 5
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WELCOME
Welcome
to the Policy Brief. The purpose of this brief is to provide
a
resource for teacher education professionals, administrators and
students from which teacher preparation, recruitment, retention and
renewal programs and policies can be developed. The choice of summaries
is not an attempt to promote any particular position on issues or
polarization of recommendations made by government and educational
officials or contributors of the publications.
New
Study Reveals Teacher Salaries Stagnant
A recent report released by the National
Education Association indicates that despite the rise in school
enrollments and the chronic teacher shortages faced by many school
districts, teacher salary levels have barely budged, complicating the
nation's efforts to attract and retain qualified teachers. The report, Rankings & Estimates: Rankings of the
States 2004 and Estimates of School Statistics 2005, shows that
the average salary of a public school teacher for the 2003-04 school
year increased only slightly over the previous year.
Additionally, the study revealed that average per student spending for
the 2003-04 school year rose 2.3 percent to $8,248–with 29 states
below the average. The highest-ranking states were the District of
Columbia, New York and Connecticut. The lowest ranking states were
Utah, Arizona and
Oklahoma.
The study also found that public school enrollment for Fall 2003 rose
0.7 percent to 48,132,518 students from Fall 2002. The fastest-growing
student
populations were in Nevada, Arizona and Florida. The largest decreases
occurred in the District of Columbia, North Dakota, Wyoming and Vermont.
Read more about the study here.
Access the report here.
Source: National Education Association [June 23, 2005]
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The Department of Education recently
issued non-regulatory guidance that further clarifies the roles of
states and districts in implementing supplemental educational services
under the No Child Left Behind Act. The guidance—the first update since
August 2003—provides new information, as well as clarifications and
modifications to previously included topics. For example, Section C
delineates the steps that states and districts must take when a
district is identified as "in need of improvement" and can no longer be
a service provider. It also explains that some teachers may be hired by
service providers, even if they work in a school or district that is in
need of improvement. Other sections address the use of incentives by
providers to boost or maintain attendance and reward student
achievement, the "fair" selection of providers to work in buildings,
and the responsibility for evaluation. Read more here.
Source:
U.S. Department of Education, Ed Review [June 17, 2005]
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The Condition of Education 2005
The
National Center for Education Statistics recently released its annual
report on the condition of education. The Condition of
Education 2005 summarizes important developments and trends in
education using the latest available data.
The
report presents 40 indicators on the status and condition of education
and a special analysis of the mobility of elementary and secondary
school teachers. The indicators represent a consensus of professional
judgment on the most significant national measures of the condition and
progress of education for which accurate data are available.
The
2005 print edition includes 40 indicators in six main areas: (1)
enrollment trends and student characteristics at all levels of the
education system from elementary education to adult learning; (2)
student achievement and the longer term, enduring effects of education;
(3) student effort and rates of progress through the educational system
among different population groups; (4) the contexts of elementary and
secondary education in terms of courses taken, teacher characteristics,
and other factors; (5) the contexts of postsecondary education; and (6)
societal support for learning, including parental and community support
for learning, and public and private financial support of education at
all levels.
Click here to view this report.
Source:
National Center for Education Statistics [June 14, 2005]
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Teachers Matter: Attracting,
Developing and Retaining Effective Teachers
A
Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development
(OECD) has published a comprehensive examination of the teacher
policies of 25 nations. Entitled Teachers
Matter:
Attracting, Developing and Retaining Effective Teachers, the report provides
a comprehensive, international analysis of
trends and developments in the teacher workforce in the 25 countries;
research on attracting, developing and retaining effective teachers;
innovative and successful policies and practices that countries have
implemented; and teacher policy options for countries to consider.
While
documenting many areas of concern about teachers and teaching, the
report also provides positive examples of where policies are making a
difference. It spotlights countries where teachers’ social standing is
high, and where there are more qualified applicants than vacant posts.
Even in countries where shortages have been a concern, there are recent
signs of increased interest in teaching, and policy initiatives appear
to be taking effect.
For
example, the report finds that at
the top of
the salary
scale, only Korea and Japan offer higher teacher salaries than the
United States. The U.S. is among the countries with the highest
salaries at the
new-teacher and 15-year mark. In all but a few countries,
teachers' statutory salaries have increased since 1994, but they have
markedly fallen relative to other professions. Read
an overview of the study here.
Source: National Council
on Teacher Quality, Teacher Quality Bulletin
[June 23, 2005]
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The MetLife
Foundation and the Committee for Economic Development have released The
MetLife Survey of the American Teacher: Transitions
and the Role of Supportive Relationships. The survey explores the
attitudes and perspectives of teachers, principals, and students
regarding the experience of being a new teacher in a school. Survey
topics included orientation, challenges, support, and parent
involvement.
Source: U.S. Department of
Education, Education Innovator
[June 13, 2005]
Currently, 47 states and the District of Columbia offer 538 different
alternate
route teacher certification programs. Last year, about 35,000
first-year teachers entered their classrooms through alternate teacher
training programs. The National Center for Education Information (NCEI)
has issued a Profile
of Alternate Route Teachers, which, among other topics, examines
the appeal of alternative certification, minority attraction to
alternate programs, and teacher retention.
Source: U.S.
Department of
Education, Education Innovator
[June 13, 2005]
A new book by the American
Educational Research Association entitled Studying Teacher Education: The
Report of the AERA Panel on Research and Teacher Education, finds that both traditional and
alternative teacher-training programs can be effective if they contain
certain components. Read more here.
Source:
The Chronicle: Community College News
[July 1, 2005]
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Nevada Approved
State-Paid, Full-Day Kindergarten Programs
The
Nevada Legislature has approved spending $22 million next year to start
state-paid, full-day kindergarten programs in poorer neighborhoods
across the state. http://www.leg.state.nv.us/73rd/bills/AB/AB198_R1.pdf.
Source:
ECS e-connection [June 22, 2005]
South Dakota
to Change Way of Calculating Graduation Rate
A new
student-tracking system will be phased in during the next two years in
South Dakota. The change will give a more accurate accounting of
students who complete high school but will most likely mean a lower
graduation rate. South Dakota's graduation rate in the 2002-03 school
year was 96%, one of the highest in the nation, but will probably fall
to about 85% after the new system is put in place. Read it here.
Source: ECS
e-clips [June 24, 2005]
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