Categories for Quality Teachers
May 8, 2019
Active Student Responding (ASR) is a powerful set of low cost strategies teachers can use to improve student achievement. ASR occurs when a student makes a response by answering questions or responding in a variety of ways that communicates the student’s understanding of the content being taught during the lesson. The more opportunities the student has to respond, the increased likelihood the student is learning. Increasing active responses allows teachers to rapidly assess performance. As opportunities to respond increase so does opportunities for praise and corrective feedback that results in accelerated learning. Attending and being on-task are insufficient ways for teachers to know if learning is occurring. For a teacher to know if a student is actually learning a written, action, or oral response is required. The more opportunities to respond the more quickly students master lessons. ASR strategies are designed to engage all students regardless of class size and ASR avoids the common problem of having only high achievers answer questions while low achievers remain silent, thus escaping detection. Examples of ASR strategies include; guided notes, response slates, response cards, and choral responding.
Citation: States, J., Detrich, R. & Keyworth, R. (2019). Active Student Responding (ASR) Overview.Oakland, CA: The Wing Institute. https://www.winginstitute.org/instructional-delivery-student-respond
Link: https://www.winginstitute.org/instructional-delivery-student-respond
April 17, 2019
What Works Clearinghouse Intervention Report: National Board for Professional Teaching Standards Certification. NBPTS was established in 1987 to foster “high and rigorous standards for what accomplished teachers should know and be able to do” (NBPTS mission statement). As a voluntary national system, NBPTS certifies that a teacher has taught in the field and meets certification requirements for best practices for instruction and pedagogy. The standards reflect five core propositions: (1) effective teachers are committed to students and their learning, (2) effective teachers know the subjects they teach and how to teach those subjects to students, (3) effective teachers manage and monitor student learning, (4) effective teachers think systematically about their practice and learn from experience, and (5) effective teachers are members of learning communities.
The process requires teachers to pay a fee and can take from 3 months to several years to complete. School districts have come to view the process as a way to improve student achievement, allocating scarce resources in the form of performance compensation to encourage teachers who acquire certification. The What Works Clearinghouse review found NBPTS-certified teachers had mixed effects on mathematics achievement and no discernible effects on English language arts achievement for students in grades 3 through 8.
Citation: Mathematica Policy Research (2018). What Works Clearinghouse Intervention Report: National Board for Professional Teaching Standards Certification. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). Retrieved from https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/Docs/InterventionReports/wwc_nbpts_021318.pdf.
Link: https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/Docs/InterventionReports/wwc_nbpts_021318.pdf
April 16, 2019
Performance feedback is a practice used to improve performance. Principals give feedback to teachers to clarify expectations and to provide information for increasing administrative, instructional, behavior management, and personal competency skills. More than seven meta-analyses conducted since 1980 support feedback as one of the most powerful tools for improving performance. To deliver useful feedback, principals need current and accurate information on student performance and a teacher’s instructional skills. Research finds that principals depend on unreliable sources of data such as “walk-throughs,” brief informal observations that provide snapshots of classroom activities but are not designed for performance improvement. Principals should replace traditional walk-throughs with more effective feedback practices, such as coaching, that are better suited to improving specific teaching skills. For the best results, feedback must meet these four conditions: (1) It is objective, reliable, measurable, and specific; (2) it provides information about what was done well, what needs improvement, and how to improve; (3) it is delivered frequently and immediately following performance; and (4) it is about performance rather than personal characteristics.
Citation: Cleaver, S., Detrich, R. & States, J. (2019). Overview of Performance Feedback. Oakland, CA: The Wing Institute. https://www.winginstitute.org/teacher-evaluation-feedback.
Link: https://www.winginstitute.org/teacher-evaluation-feedback
February 26, 2019
Increasing Teachers’ Use of Behavior-Specific Praise with the Teacher vs. Student Game. Research has long supported the importance of teacher behavior specific praise in the classroom. This study examines the impact of a Teacher Versus Student Game, a program that is based upon The Good Behavior Game (GBG). GBG has been in use since 1967 and is an evidence-based behavioral classroom management strategy that helps children learn how to work together to create a positive learning environment. Pressure for teachers to show academic results is hindered by challenging student conduct. Maintaining control of student behavior is a critical factor in teacher’s ability to effectively deliver instruction that results in increased student academic outcomes. Using group contingencies found in the Teacher Versus Student Game provides teachers another program designed to accomplish this important goal. This paper found that the game increased teachers rates of praise; however, the teachers gradually decreased their use of BSP over time.
Two additional papers on practices to increase teacher praise are identified under citations.
Citation: Lastrapes, R. E., Fritz, J. N., and Hasson, R. C., (2019). Increasing Teachers’ Use of Behavior-Specific Praise with the Teacher vs. Student Game. Retrieved from Researchgate: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/331178227_Increasing_Teachers%27_Use_of_Behavior-Specific_Praise_with_the_Teacher_vs_Student_Game
Gage, N. A., MacSuga-Gage, A. S., & Crews, E. (2017). Increasing teachers’ use of behavior-specific praise using a multitiered system for professional development. Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions, 19(4), 239-251.
White, K. (2018). Increasing Teachers’ Use of Behavior Specific Praise Via a Smart Watch.
Link: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/331178227_Increasing_Teachers%27_Use_of_Behavior-Specific_Praise_with_the_Teacher_vs_Student_Game
January 22, 2019
Barriers to Implementing Classroom Management and Behavior Support Plans: An Exploratory Investigation. Ample evidence supports effective classroom management’s place in maximizing student achievement. Unfortunately, sustained implementation of classroom management strategies too often fail. This study examines obstacles encountered by 33 educators along with suggested interventions to overcome impediments to effective delivery of classroom management interventions or behavior support plans. Having the right classroom management plan isn’t enough if you can’t deliver the strategies to the students in the classroom.
Citation: Collier‐Meek, M. A., Sanetti, L. M., & Boyle, A. M. (2019). Barriers to implementing classroom management and behavior support plans: An exploratory investigation. Psychology in the Schools, 56(1), 5-17.
Link: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/pits.22127
December 18, 2018
Teacher-student Relationships. Research shows skills commonly referred to as soft skills (personal competencies) have a powerful impact on teacher effectiveness. Mastery results in beneficial teacher-student relationships. Evidence finds teachers who create a positive relationship have a substantial effect on student learning; they also have fewer discipline problems, office referrals, and related conduct issues. Even more importantly, these skills can be taught in pre-service and in-service training.
Citation: States, J., Detrich, R. & Keyworth, R. (2018). Teacher-student Relationships Oakland, CA: The Wing Institute. Retrieved from https://www.winginstitute.org/soft-skills-teacher-student-relationships
Link: https://www.winginstitute.org/soft-skills-teacher-student-relationships
November 28, 2018
Seven Trends: The Transformation of the Teaching Force—Updated October 2018
Teachers play a crucial role in education, make up one of the largest workforces in the country, and require significant resources to support. As a result, tracking trends and changes in the demographic characteristics becomes critically important as education systems allocate existing resources and plan for the future. This study examines the most recent data from staffing surveys conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), as well as those going back to 1987. Its concludes that over the last three decades the teaching force has become: 1) larger, 2) grayer, 3) greener, 4) more female, 5) more diverse by race-ethnicity, 6) consistent in academic ability, and 7) unstable. It also calls for more research as to the reasons for these trends and their implications and consequences.
A few highlights include: The rate of increase for teachers has far outpaced the rate of increase for students. The student population has grown by 24% over this period of time while the teacher workforce has grown by 65%. The workforce is growing both grayer (retirements have steadily increased) and greener (the modal public school teacher was in their first three years of teaching. It is has an increasing percent of female teachers (76.6%) as well minority teachers (growth in the number of minority teachers was more than three times the growth rate of white teachers). The field still suffers from extremely high turnover, with 44.6 % of new teachers leaving their jobs in less than five years.
Citation: Ingersoll, Richard M.; Merrill, Elizabeth; Stuckey, Daniel; and Collins, Gregory. (2018). Seven Trends: e Transformation of the Teaching Force – Updated October 2018. CPRE Research Reports.
Link: https://repository.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1109&context=cpre_researchreports
October 31, 2018
Teacher Coaching Overview
Research provides convincing evidence that teachers wield great influence over student outcomes. Our knowledge base tells us that how teachers teach is instrumental to their success. To leverage this fact, pre-service and in-service programs must use pedagogical techniques offering the greatest likelihood that teachers will master and apply these critical competencies on the job. Research shows that coaching is the most efficacious way to accomplish this goal. By far, coaching outperforms didactic instruction, the most commonly used technique. Coaching is essential to mastering complex skill sets required of every teacher. It improves treatment integrity of practices taught and, unlike other methods, makes more likely that the practices will actually be used in the classroom. Coaches instruct trainees in standards, demonstrate skills, and observe the application of these skills in real-world classroom settings. Coaches provide feedback to trainees, and, based on observation, instruct the trainees in how to improve their performance. Given the disappointing track record of current in-service programs, coaching offer schools a viable alternative for improving services.
Citation:Cleaver, S., Detrich, R. & States, J. (2018). Overview of Teacher Evaluation. Oakland, CA: The Wing Institute. https://www.winginstitute.org/teacher-evaluation-teacher-coaching.
Link: https://www.winginstitute.org/teacher-evaluation-teacher-coaching
October 29, 2018
The teacher pay penalty has hit a new high: Trends in the teacher wage and compensation gaps through 2017
Given that evidence clearly shows teachers as having the single greatest school-based impact on student learning, it becomes crucial that schools recruit and retain high quality teachers. A key component to this involves teacher wage and benefit packages. This study concludes that teacher compensation is falling further and further behind that of comparable career opportunities each year. One metric that can be used to study this issue over time is “relative teacher pay”—teacher pay compared with that of other career opportunities for potential and current teachers. This is referred to as the “teacher wage penalty” which calculates wage gaps as a percentage of difference. The study concludes: The teacher pay penalty has been steadily worsening over the last two decades, increasing from a -1.8% wage gap in 1994 to a wage gap of -18.7% in 2017. While weekly wages for comparable jobs increased from $ 1,339 to $ 1,476 over this period of time, teacher weekly wages actually decreased $ 27 from $ 1,164 to $ 1,137. This gap varies significantly between the genders (-15.6% for women and -26.8% for men), across states (from a .3.1% for Wyoming to -36.4% Arizona). The study also downplays the impact of the recent recession on this trend, highlighting the impact of state government decisions on reducing education funding.
Citation: Allegretto, S.& Mishel, L. (2018). The teacher pay penalty has hit a new high: Trends in the teacher wage and compensation gaps through 2017. Washington DC: Economic Policy Institute.
Web Address: https://www.epi.org/files/pdf/153196.pdf
https://www.epi.org/publication/teacher-pay-gap-2018/
October 26, 2018
Hard Words: Why aren’t kids being taught to read?
This report and podcast examines the scientific basis for how to teach reading to children. This investigation reveals how children learn to read, emphasizing the five critical components of reading instruction. Unfortunately, most teacher preparation programs ignore the science and, in some cases, actively resist it. As a result, millions of kids are being set up to fail. This American Public Media documentary assesses the current knowledge base behind sound reading practices, the positive impact of effective reading practices can have on student reading performance, and the challenges faced in implementing these practices in the face of opposition from practitioners of whole language and proponents of balanced reading instruction.
Citation:Hanford, E, (2018). Hard Words: Why aren’t kids being taught to read? American Public Media (APM). https://www.apmreports.org/story/2018/09/10/hard-words-why-american-kids-arent-being-taught-to-read
Link: https://www.apmreports.org/story/2018/09/10/hard-words-why-american-kids-arent-being-taught-to-read
