Professionalizing the Teaching Profession

1. Professionalizing the Teaching Profession CAL TURN Conference, November 16, 2012

2. Today’s Goal: • Share how our new teacher evaluation system was a necessary component of a larger systematic overhaul required in order to improve student achievement.

3. Teacher Effectiveness Revolution Green Dot Goals: • Hire and retain EFFECTIVE teachers • Codify Teacher EFFECTIVENESS • Fairly evaluate teachers’ EFFECTIVENESS in the classroom • Differentiate support to develop teacher EFFECTIVENESS • Provide career pathways for EFFECTIVEteachers to develop within the organization

4. Hire Effective Teachers

5. Hire Effective Teachers • This year Green Dot hired 100 teachers • Applicant Pool: 1401 • That’s a 7% admission rate • Robust process with 6 screening steps • online application • credential check • 2 phone screens • demo lesson • final interview • Hiring Committee - teachers, admin, parents and students • Each interview at the school site takes admin and teacher volunteers several hours

6. Retaining Effective Teachers • The Irreplaceables • Understanding the real retention crisis in America’s Urban Schools (NTP) • Irreplaceables are teachers who are so successful they are nearly impossible to replace • Irreplaceables are rarely valued or supported • When a top teacher leaves a poor performing school, only 1 in 11 will be of similar quality • Look for research on how often they leave

7. What the Research Tells Us “ Teachers are the most important in-school factor in student achievement. ” Half of new teachers leave urban classrooms within 3 years, just as they are beginning to have the strongest impact on student learning. We need to give effective teachers a reason to stay. “ Over 50% of urban teachers have less than 10 years in the classroom. ”

8. Persistent administrators aren’t enough…

9. Policy Barriers to Smart Retention • Meaningless evaluations systems • Provide little insight into a teacher’s actual practice • Lockstep compensation systems • 55% of irreplaceable teachers earn lower salaries than the average ineffective teachers • Lack of Career Pathways • Opportunities for teacher leadership Green Dot’s systematic overhaul was about changing these three factors, so that we could encourage teachers to endeavor to become more effective and then keep effective teachers in the organization

10. Codify Teacher Effectiveness

11. College Ready Teaching Framework • Created the CRTF • Built with 4 other CMOs • Based on the Danielson Rubric • Piloted at 4 schools with 16 teachers in 2010-2011 • Feedback collectedand revised the rubric • Piloted with all teachers and administrators in 2011-2012 • Spent over 30 hours in rubric revisions with a team of 12 admin and teachers to revisethe CRTF

12. Becoming Effective LEVEL 1: DOES NOT MEET STANDARD LEVEL 4: EXEMPLIFIES STANDARD

13. Teacher Evaluation Hire and Retain Effective Teachers Provide career pathways Differentiate teacher support Fairly Evaluate Teacher Effectiveness Codify Teacher Effectiveness

14. What is the objective of teacher evaluation? • 100% measurement • 75% measurement, 25% development • 50% measurement, 50% development • 25% measurement, 75% development • 100% development Cross-tab label 1 / 70

15. Results of Marzano’s informal study 0% 2%

16. The Teacher Evaluation Shift Old New Measure Frequency of Observation Rubric Based Use of Evaluation Score Connection to Supports Differentiation

17. Example Multiple Measures School Level SGP 10% 360 Survey 5% Family Survey 5% Individual SGP 30% Student Survey 10% Observation 40%

18. Observation Process The observation cycle is changing – so is the way Administrators are observing and evaluating

19. Building Administrator Capacity • Admin are trained on how to observe teachers. The process involves learning how to collect evidence objectively, tie evidence to the rubric and then score the evidence • Admin have to pass ongoing certification assessment in order to formally evaluate teachers • Passing the certification tests means they have the skills and training required to conduct formal observations

20. We have done a lot in a fairly short time Pilot Test Refine • Labor/Management Collaboration • Focus Groups with feedback loops: a processes that incorporates teacher and admin voice • Encourage Research Based Decisions • Base evaluation around supports, not measurement • Create a living contract that members understand can be amended (Living Contract)

21. How do you get member buy-in? • Be clear about your organization’s philosophy of evaluation • De-mystify what it means to be effective • Give teachers real time datathat they can use to inform their practice • Involveteachers - over 30% of our teachers have been involved in the work - • Industry standard is about 5% • Webinars and Surveys as part of bargaining • Introduce pilots as a way of transitioning to performance based compensation

22. Differentiate Teacher Support

23. Wrong emphasis Teacher Evaluation Source: Ked Futernick Teacher Supports Dismissal Policies Collective Bargaining

24. Right Emphasis

25. The necessity of Teacher Supports • Ensure that teachers understand your support system prior to implementing an evaluation system tied to compensation • Teachers must believe that they will be supported in their endeavors to become more effective • Align your district’s supports team with the evaluation team • These two groups need to work with one another so that they are all speaking the same language

26. Teacher Support • The purpose of teacher supports is to advance teachers in their profession. • Supports must be • DATA DRIVEN • PRACTICAL • JOB-EMBEDDED • COLLABORATIVE • INDIVIDUALIZED

27. 2012-2013: Year of Teacher Supports Most importantly, we plan on SUPPORTING our teachers growth in unprecedented ways

28. Provide Career Pathways

29. Career Path • Instructional Lead Team members • Site Liaisons • Teacher Leader Academy (TLA) • Teacher Leader Facilitators (TLF) • Animo Data Fellows (ADF) • Demonstration Classroom Teachers* (New: 12-13) • Sabbatical Teachers * (New: 13-14) • *Still working on how this will fit with our current contract, compensation and new evaluation

30. What did we learn and what would we do differently?

31. Hindsight is 20:20 If I were starting this work over, I would… • Introduce this as a systematic change focused on improving student achievement and professionalizing the profession • All this work should not be seen as a singular effort to evaluate teachers differently • Prioritize supports before accountability • Teachers must believe that there is a robust and improved system for them to get support • Hold out on talking about compensation • Compensation makes everybody nervous, in this climate, projecting salaries a year in advance is even unreasonable

32. Hindsight is 20:20 • Develop admin capacity to use the rubric and coach teachers prior to introducing a new rubric • Admin must be seen as instructional leaders and shouldn’t have to learn alongside the teachers • Co-develop a clear strategic plan for processes, feedback loops, communication and messaging • Ensure members know how they can participate, provide feedback and get information • Ensure frequent communication between union leaders and management

33. Hindsight is 20:20 • Memorialize both parties commitment to this work • Protects the work from a change of leadership and documents the purpose and how we will work together

34. AMU- INTERNAL UNION • Reframe Union Work • Take leadership in beginning discussions around teacher evaluation, teacher professional development, and decision making- This is all union work! • Build capacity within union positions (site reps, executive board) with leaders who are open to these changes • Build support within rep council and membership for this type of unionism • Rep Council should develop and vote on a statement of support for this work (See AMU Mission Statement) • Reach out to current teacher leaders for support- teachers in bargained leadership positions are doing UNION WORK-make this connection explicit for them

35. Questions

36. Getting in touch Arielle Zurzolo/AMU President: amupresident@gmail.com Julia Fisher/Teacher Effectiveness Lead: jfisher@animo.org