Oct 18, 2007 6:53 PM
A post-2000 policy that phased out uncertified teachers from New York City’s public school classrooms, permitted alternative credentialing programs and recruited high-achieving college graduates through the New York City Teaching Fellows programs and Teach for America significantly contributed to student test-score gains in low-performing schools, a new report says.
The report, “The Narrowing Gap in New York City Teacher Qualifications and Its Implications for Student Achievement in High-Poverty Schools,” by the Urban Institute’s National Center for Analysis of Longitudinal Data in Education Research, claims a direct link between higher teacher qualifications and student learning.
“Together, teachers’ experience, academic abilities, preparation and certification contribute to effectiveness in the classroom. Bringing teachers with strong qualifications into hard-pressed schools likely improved the performance of students in those schools,” researchers concluded.
The question now, say the study’s authors, is whether this recruitment achievement can be combined with professional development and other supports to reduce turnover, enhance teachers’ capabilities, and continue to foster student learning, a perspective the UFT has long held.
But most important is to attract quality teachers by raising pay — as the UFT has done by 43 percent over the last few years. Retaining them, however, is still problematic, which is why the union is pressing so hard on issues like smaller class size, safety and respect.
A copy of the report is available at www.caldercenter.org/PDF/1001103_Narrowing_Gap.pdf.
AScribe Newswire, Oct. 3