Study Questions Value of Teacher Development
Report from nonprofit group suggests rethinking ways to boost skills of teachers
Investments in ongoing training for teachers usually didn’t improve their performance, and schools should rethink how they try to bolster their teachers’ skills, according to a study released Tuesday by a national nonprofit group.
TNTP, a Brooklyn-based organization that trains educators and promotes stringent evaluations, analyzed several years of data from three school districts. It found the districts spent an average of $18,000 per teacher yearly on professional development, including coaching in the classroom, formal feedback, vendor contracts for training and staff time.
Despite that investment, the report found that only three out of 10 teachers in these districts saw their practice improve substantially over two or three years, and two out of 10 teachers saw their performance decline.
The report comes as districts nationwide struggle to boost teacher quality, which many experts call the most important in-school factor affecting how much students learn. The three districts weren’t identified, but the authors of the study said they were representative of large public school systems nationwide.
The researchers surveyed more than 10,000 teachers and 500 school leaders in the three districts, analyzed teacher ratings and interviewed staff members.
TNTP chief executive Dan Weisberg, chief of labor policy for New York City schools during the administration of Mayor Michael Bloomberg, said schools nationwide should re-evaluate what helps teachers improve, innovate to match different teachers’ needs and measure what works.
“The current approach to teacher development is broken,” Mr. Weisberg said. “We are throwing a lot of things against the wall and not even looking to see what sticks.”
TNTP was launched in 1997 as The New Teacher Project and first led by Michelle Rhee, who later as Washington, D.C., schools chief drew fierce opposition from teachers unions. TNTP is funded by several philanthropies that back using achievement data to drive school policy, including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Walton Family Foundation.
Tuesday’s report drew praise from several education groups, including the American Federation of Teachers. Union president Randi Weingarten said the AFT had criticized Study Questions Value of Teacher Development - WSJ:
