Teacher Quality and School Improvement in 2010:

P-20 in Historical Perspective

Steve Tozer, UIC

stozer@uic.edu

What we learned in graduate school

• Schools don’t really affect student learning; it’s SES that does.– Cultural Deficit Theory– (Coleman, Jencks, 1960s)

1970s Effective Schools Research (Edmonds)

• "How many effective schools would you have to see to be persuaded of the educability of poor children? If your answer is more than one, then I submit that you have reasons of your own for preferring to believe that pupil performance derives from family background instead of school response to family background.”

1980s Nation at Risk

• School Reform as a national priority

• State legislation to improve schools

• Beginning of the standards movement

1990s: The Standards Movement

• What Matters Most . . .

• The quality of classroom instruction

• NBPTS, NCTAF, IPTS

• PK-12 Learning Standards

2000s: Transforming Schools at Scale

• Kati Haycock and the Education Trust

• NCLB (2001)

• Marzano: What Works in Schools (2003)

• Chenoweth: It’s Being Done (2007)

• CCSR: Five Essential Supports (2010)

Consortium for Chicago School Research

The Big Three: Students, Teachers, and Leaders

• Joanne Weiss (Race to the Top)

• “. . . and that means we have to get the leadership right first.” (2010)

Improving Classroom Instruction at Scale

• The importance and limits of teacher preparation and certification

• Where does most teacher learning take place?

• Schools as adult learning environments

Leadership Quality as essential to Teacher Quality

• Are high quality principals born or made?

• Eight years of results

• New York School Leaders Academy

• New Leaders for New Schools

• UIC

What they have in common

• Partnerships with school districts

• High selectivity

• Intensive, year-long internships

• Integration of Theory and Practice

• Results accountable to improved student learning

Sample Results from UIC

• In the highest-need schools in CPS:– Improved test scores at elementary and secondary

levels

– Improved attendance in elementary and secondary schools

– Improved freshman-on-track in large and small high schools

– Reduced drop-out rates and increased graduation rates

What about the Market Model solutions?

• Charters, alternative routes, turnarounds and “breaking the higher ed monopoly”

• Absent good leadership, charter schools fail• Charter schools now seek strong leadership

as the key to success• Evidence: Alternative routes to teaching

are neither the solution nor a problem

Why is improved school leadership so essential?

• Because high-quality instruction in every classroom cannot otherwise be attained

• We have no viable alternative theory for improving teacher quality at scale

How do we know our principal work-force isn’t good enough?

• Good principals dramatically improve student performance

• Most principals do not

• Principals have been caught in a historical paradigm shift

Keys to Improving School Leadership in Illinois

• Must be highly selective• Must be clinically intensive• Must involve school districts and expert

practitioners as partners• Systemic, cost effective approach to (a)

changing higher ed’s relationship to PreK-12, and (b) improving learning outcomes

Higher Education has changed before

• 1909: The Flexner Report• 1910-1920: Resulting revolution in medical

education• (Highly selective, clinically intensive,

partnership with hospitals)• Ratio of physicians to principals in Illinois

is 3:1; it can be done

The P-20 challenge:

• Paying attention to what we already know: because teaching matters, leadership matters

• Marshalling the state leadership and political will

• Pending school leadership legislation in Illinois: using our greatest levers systemically