A National Model Needed for No Child Left Behind

A National Model for States to Meet Teacher Requirements Set Out by the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001
Janet Johnson
History 324
Judith Richardson
April 28, 2008










A National Model for States to Meet Teacher Requirements Set Out by No Child Left Behind Act of 2001

Introduction

President George W. Bush first ran for President of the United States in 2000 as an education candidate. He used the improved Texas education system as a model to show the public what could be accomplished with oversight. In January 2002, he signed the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 into law with overwhelming support. The Act tried to increase accountability and flexibility and increase federal support for education. (US Department of Education, 2004)
One of the increasingly debated portions of this legislation is the Teacher Quality Objectives. Under No Child Left Behind, all teachers must be highly qualified by the end of the 2005-06 school year. The wording “highly qualified” has become accepted as meaning: 1) hold a bachelor's degree, (2) hold a certification or licensure to teach in the state of his or her employment, and (3) have proven knowledge of the subjects he or she teaches. In 2005 the president requested that teachers receive financial support through training, recruitment, and loan forgiveness. He requested 5.1 billion in 2005 and 4.4 billion in 2004.
Issue to be Investigated
Individual states have historically had the responsibility to educate and license teachers. This new legislation provides oversight, but the responsibility still is a state and local function. (Pullman & Van Patten, 2007) A national model is necessary in order to meet the teacher quality objectives for the No Child Left Behind Act.
I will outline what the No Child Left Behind Act is requiring of states in regards to teacher quality. I will look at what the majority of states currently have in place now. I will outline what is necessary for a national model and look at where we are in reaching those goals set out in No Child Left Behind Act.

Literature Review

The issue that I am looking at is teacher quality. When looking for articles and information on this subject, I have discovered that there are many articles that verify the position that a skilled teacher is essential for student performance to excel. The problem that I had was that I discovered few articles that gave objective means of defining “skilled”. The wording in NCLB is not vague but it still leaves question.
I found my topic for this paper in the article, State Policies Hinder Teacher Quality, which was anonymously written for American Teacher in September 2007. It looks at the “patchwork of state policies designed to promote teacher quality”. This article is where I discovered the “2007 State Teacher Policy Yearbook”, which I found on the National Council on Teacher Quality website.
The best source for data and concrete numbers that I was able to find was the website for the National Council on Teacher Quality. In the section “About Us” (http://www.nctq.org/p/about/index.jsp) they did a good job of summing up the problems that I had with my research. “We recognize the absence of much of the evidence necessary to make a compelling case for change and seek to fill that void with a research agenda that has direct and practical implications for policy. … increasing public awareness about three sets of institutions that have the greatest impact on teacher quality: states, teacher preparation programs, and teacher unions.”
While looking for information about the scope of the problem. I found on ProQuest, an article by Suzanne Perez Tobias, from April 18, 2008, discussing a school district which completely restructured it’s middle schools’ teachers. They failed to meet the test score targets for six years. The article, Restructuring Shuffles half of schools’ teachers, appeared in The Tribune Business News, Washington.

The U.S. Department of Education website was also a great wealth of information with concrete numbers defining both portions of the problem and ways of identifying progress. It uses the NCLB as a backdrop on all of its research and reports. On their “Stronger Accountability” page, there is a searchable database that gives numbers that correlate to each state. I was able to compare the states of New Hampshire and Louisiana within seconds. 98 % of New Hampshire‘s elementary school students that live in high poverty areas have highly qualified teachers, compared to the 85.3% of high poverty students in Louisiana. (http://www.ed.gov/nclb/accountability/results/progress/index.html)
John Wright, President of the Arizona Education Association testified before the Senate Subcommittee on Labor, Health & Human Services, Education and Related Agencies on April 16, 2008, only 12 days before this report was due. I was able to get he content of his speech from the National Education Association. He gave good working definitions for Quality Teacher, he also discusses teaching as a profession, and details a career path whereas quality teachers will emerge. He quoted a document, What Matters Most: Teaching and America’s Future.
What Matters Most: Teaching and America’s Future, a 162 page document published by the National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future in 1996, which was rich with information about teacher quality, how to define it, how to find it in all teachers, and how important this is. Because the information is over 10 years old, it helps us define what the problems are and how to address them. It also gives some data which can be compared to the current data. (in 1990 about 70 % of teachers were certified, but only about 50% had a bachelor’s degree in the subject that they taught. In math the numbers were much lower at around 35%) I found this document downloadable in PDF form at www.nctaf.org/documents/WhatMattersMost. The article, Interfacing Culture Specific Pedagogy with Counseling: A Proposed Diversity Training Model for Preparing Preservice Teachers for Diverse Learners, published in Multicultural Education in the Spring of 2007 issue, was a through article about how new teachers can be trained to teach in schools that are racially and culturally diverse. This problem arises when the goal of “highly qualified” teachers arises. Working in schools with students from low socio-class and minority backgrounds causes more turnover of teachers and addressing this issue before they begin working might help stem the flow of teachers to wealthier school districts.
I found the article More with Less: Urban Teacher Experiences in a New Small School published in Negro Educational Review in Fall 2007 to be useful in defining the quality of schools and of teachers. This article is about a public school within a larger school. The attempt is to increase graduation rates, daily attendance, and daily student experience with a smaller school and effective teachers. It defines how, with a large school district, revenue is not necessarily dependant on quality of outcome. This article explores how competition can act as a mechanism of recuperation, even if that competition comes from within the school itself.
In Jerry Odland’s article, NCLB-Year for Change, explores the reasons behind the separate issues in NCLB legislation. This article, published in Olney in the Fall of 2007 was useful in verifying the underlying principles and objectives of the NCLB Act.
Findings
In high poverty schools nationwide, in 2006-2007 school year, 90.42 % of elementary and secondary students have “highly qualified” teachers. (Department of education website, Stronger Accountability page) State policies determine the career path of teachers, who gets a license, who gets to work where. Being called into question is the existence the distinct systems overall. There are separate plans being instituted by each state from the Department of Education website on the “Highly Qualified Teachers Revised State Plans” page.
Discussion
There was bipartisan support for the No Child Left Behind Act from its’ inception. With charter schools, private schools, alternative districts, and home schooling, there are some options to parents who want their child to get the best education possible. Now, with testing requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act, the performance numbers are available to assist parents in making the best possible choice for their child.
Public school will not be a perfect fit for all students, with respect to religious practices and medical conditions, but it must be a good choice for all of the children who need it. The NCLB Act can help to achieve this by assuring that teachers are highly qualified, well trained and have degrees in their subjects. According to the wording in NCLB, a teacher is highly qualified with full certification, a bachelor’s degree and demonstrated competence in subject knowledge and teaching.
The NEA goes further to suggest that a quality teacher will know their subject matter, know how to teach that subject matter, and understand how students learn and what it takes to reach them (emphasis mine). (Wright, 2008) Teacher preparedness to deal with any type of classroom, as would be self reported by new teachers entering a classroom has improved over the last ten years (Marbley, 2007).
New teachers must be highly educated on how information is learned, (Pullman, 2007) not just what information is tested. To make matters more complicated, new teachers are often white and come from a non-diverse background. New teachers often feel particularly unprepared to teach children of diverse backgrounds and socio-economic backgrounds.
Conclusion
This paper covers the requirements set out for testing of teachers in the No Child Left Behind Act, it looks at the different state models for improvement, and it tries to show that a model for training teachers and allowing them to enter the classroom as highly qualified has yet to be discovered. No state has reached the goals set out by NCLB to date. In fact, some districts are having to fire all their teachers and rehire only those who meet the standards set by NCLB, and they are striving to make the job attractive enough to ensure that there are enough teachers to fill the vacancies that exist.
Before the 2001 Act was passed, only about 70% were certified and between 35% and 50% had degrees in the subjects that they taught. (What matters most, teaching America’s future, 1996). Things have improved since the inception of the act, but only two states, Tennessee and South Carolina have even come close to reaching the goals
Performance (National Council on Teacher Quality Yearbook, 2007). In the area of special education, only small parts of the goals have been achieved.
With no state meeting all the parts of the highly qualified teacher wording from the No Child Left Behind Act, there are currently no states that would serve as a national model. We, as a country, are getting closer to meeting the lofty goals.





References
Anonymous, (2007), State policies hinder teacher quality, American teacher. Washington: September 2007, vol. 92, iss. 1, pg 5, 1 pg, Retrieved April 14 from ProQuest Direct database
Abstract (Summary)
The study finds that no state comes close to being a national model for change in the six areas; meeting NCLB teacher quality objectives, teacher licensure, teacher evaluation and compensation, state approval of teacher preparation programs, alternate routes to certification and preparation of special education teachers. Forty-one states require teacher preparation programs to administer a basic skills test, but 24 of those states delay testing until the candidates complete the preparation program.

Garth-McCullough, Ruanda, (2007), Negro educational review. Greensboro: Gall 2007, vol. 58, iss. ¾; pg. 253, 20 pgs, Retrieved April 14 from ProQuest Direct database
Abstract (summary)
While reform options such as creating new schools seem tempting, they challenge the ills of public schools with new school creation under the same system. Of interest are the lessons that can be gleaned from teachers at a small school that serves a Black American population. A theory on declining institutions was used to explore teachers’ experiences and the feasibility of exit, voice, and loyalty as mechanisms of recuperation. Interview data concerning the benefits and challenges of working at a small school in a larger system illuminate the realities of changing a system from within. With an investigation of the lessons learned, the educational community was able to explore the viability of a Small School option as an effective way to provide an equitable, free education for non-White students in large urban school districts.
Kupermintz, H. (Fall 2003). Teacher effects and teacher effectiveness: A validity investigation of the Tennessee value added assessment system, Education evaluation and policy analysis, no. 3, pp 287-298, article retrieved on April 27, 2008 from National Education Association Website http://www.nea.org/teacherquality/validity.html
Abstract
Student test score gains have recently been proposed as a measure of educational “value-added” contribution by teachers and schools to student learning. Recent educational reform efforts such as NCLB seek to employ standardized test score gains as a key policy instrument for holding educators and school systems accountable. Currently the most influential value-added model is the Tennessee Value Added Assessment System, which analyzes student test score data and estimates the effects of individual teachers on score gains. These effects are used to construct teacher value-added measures of teaching effectiveness.
Marbley, A.F., Bonner II, F.A., McKisick, S., Henfield, M.S, Watts, L.M., (2007), Interfacing culture specific pedagogy with counseling: a proposed diversity training model for preparing preservice teachers for diverse learners, Multicultural education. San Francisco: Spring 2007, vol. 14, iss. 3, pg. 8, 9 pgs, Retrieved April 20 from ProQuest Direct database
National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future (1996). What matters most: Teaching for America’s future. New York: Teachers College Press; Little, J. W. (1990)
Summary
A plan that outlines a lofty goal of improving the education system in America. It is a large document, 162 pages, and it lists the drawbacks and the roadblocks that might happen as the system improves for all of the states.
Odland, J., (2007), NCLB- year for change, Childhood Education. Olney: Fall 2007, Vol 84, Iss 1, pg 30B, 2 pgs, Retrieved April 14, 2008 from the ProQuest Direct database
Abstract (Summary)
Drafted in 2001 and signed into law in January 2002, NCLB provided the framework for President George W. Bush's bipartisan education reform plan intended to ensure that every child in U.S. public schools has equal access to high-quality education and, in the process, raise the achievement level of elementary and secondary school students.
This article looks at the implementation of mandates in NCLB in practical terms, what it is designed for, how does it handle accountability, how it rates students, teachers, schools, and districts?
Pullman, J.D., and Van Patten, J.J. (2007), History of Education in America, New Jersey, Pearson Education
Tobias, S.P., (2008), Restructuring shuffles half of schools’ teachers, McClatchy - Tribune business news. Washington: April 18, 2008, Retrieved April 27, 2008 from the ProQuest Direct database
Abstract
Representatives with America’s Choice, a for-profit school turnaround company, were in Wichita this week to visit seven schools they will help redesign. Last month, employees at Marshall and Mead middle schools had to reapply to district administrators for their jobs as a part of a start from scratch restructuring required under the federal No Child Left Behind Act.
U.S. Department of Education, Office of the Secretary, Office of Public Affairs, A Guide to Education and No Child Left Behind, Washington, D.C., 2004.
http://www.ed.gov/nclb/overview/intro/guide/guide_pg12.html#history
Summary
This document gives a fourteen page summary of what was expected in the NCLB legislation and updates on its successes and failures.

U. S. Department of Education, No Child Left Behind Overview, Proven methods, teacher quality frequently asked questions, http://www.ed.gov/nclb/methods/teachers/teachers-faq.html, Retrieved on April 25, 2008
Summary
This document is designed to answer the questions: 1. How does this law improve teacher quality? 2. How are states and districts held accountable for improving teacher quality? 3. What about paraprofessionals or teachers’ aids? Does NCLB call for increased academic requirements for them? 4. Why is teacher quality such an important issue?
Walsh, Kate, National Council on teacher quality website, (2007) http://www.nctq.org/stpy/about.jsp
Summary
The State Teacher Policy Yearbook examines what is arguably the single most powerful authority over the teaching profession: states. States' influence over the profession-whether through regulation approved by state boards of education or profession standards boards or laws passed by state legislatures-is far reaching. These policies have an impact on who decides to enter teaching and who stays and everything in between. The Yearbook provides an unprecedented analysis of each state's full range of teacher policies, measured against a realistic blueprint for reform.

Wright, John (April 16, 2008), The federal role: quality teachers in every classroom Statement submitted before the Senate Subcommittee on labor, health& human services, education and related agencies, retrieved from the NEA website on April 27, 2008, http://www.nea.org/lac/funding/041608testi.html
Summary
Improving the quality of teaching in America's schools continues to be a central focus of school improvement and educational reform efforts. This is because teacher quality matters. Teachers do not enter the classroom as accomplished professionals — they increase their knowledge and skills with increased experience, and, as a result, effect greater student learning. Simply put, good teachers produce good students.1 In fact, research continues to show that having a good teacher is a key to students' success. The National Education Association understands and values this and is a leading voice that supports and promotes quality teaching. Throughout its long history, the NEA has advanced the profession of teaching and works toward a goal of a qualified teacher in every classroom.
In my statement I first review NEA's policies on teacher quality, next highlight some of our initiatives to improve teacher quality, and finally focus on the federal role.