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Los Angeles
Teacher Policy Team on Career Pathways
June 2013
STEP: Supporting Teachers asEmpowered Professionals
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Supporting Teachers as Empowered Professionals
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ContentsPreace
A Letter rom Teachers to the Mayor o Los Angeles
Our Design Principles
Overview: Supporting Teachers as Empowered Proessionals
Proposed Pathway Steps and Measures
Types o Roles
Emerging Teachers: Creating a Foundation
Professional Teachers:Building on the Basics
Lead Teachers: Pushing Ourselves, Pushing One Another
Innovating Teachers: Leading the Leaders
Valuing Our Partners: Learning rom UTLA, LAUSD and Others
Conclusion
Reerences
Appendix: Our Teacher Policy Team Process and Methodology
Teacher Policy Team
3
4
5
6
8
12
16
20
24
25
26
27
28
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PrefaceIn the past year, Los Angeles district and
union leaders took important steps orward
in rolling out a new multi-measure evalua-
tion and support system or Los Angeles
educators.
In the spring o 2012, a Teacher Teacher
Policy Team at Educators 4 Excellence-Los
Angeles generated a white paper outlin-
ing a set o research-based recommenda-
tions or teacher evaluation. The goal was
to break the stalemate around this issue by
uniting recommendations rom our district,
union and national models. In December
2012, Los Angeles joined hundreds o other
school districts in putting orth a new deal
or teacher evaluation that was ratied by
our district and union.
The new evaluation system should help us
identiy how teachers are pushing students
to new levels o achievement. The next ob-
vious question is: What will we do ater we
evaluate teachers?
We came together as a team o teachers to
research this question by exploring local,
national and international models or rais-
ing student achievement and the prestige o
our proession. What we propose here is a
career pathway that is grounded in the idea
that highly eective teachers should be re-
warded and empowered to expand their in-
fuence to peers and students.
Thereore, we also believe its critical that our
district and union leaders continue to work
together to rene and hone our evaluation
instruments to make them clear and con-
sistent across schools. Our evaluation sys-
tems should do more than evaluate whether
teachers are meeting or not meeting
expectations. We need multiple bands o
eectiveness to honor teachers desire to
grow in their proession and constantly work
toward mastery. With that in place, our dis-
trict, schools and teachers will be poised
and ready to take on the many new opportu-
nities this career path promises. We believe
this is critical to truly proessionalizing and
elevating teaching.
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Dear Mayor o Los Angeles,
Los Angeles is a city o dreams and aspirations. People rom allover the world fock here to ollow their passion and achieve
greatness. They believe in the promise o our city as a place where
anyone, regardless o where he or she came rom, can succeed.
But as educators, we see that all too oten this promise is broken
or our youth. Their ZIP code oten determines more o their
destiny than does their drive or potential. Our students, amilies
and community are hungry or truly great teachers. Yet too many
talented individuals leave the proession because there is a lacko encouragement, opportunity and support or their ongoing
learning. This is the time to elevate teaching to its proper status as
a dynamic proession that requires a huge heart, relentless drive,
sophisticated knowledge and skill, and tireless spirit.
This white paper oers our leaders a toolkit o strategies or
carving out career pathways to elevate our expectations and
aspirations or the uture o the teaching proession. These
strategies have been developed by the very teachers at the helm
o LAs classrooms.
Sincerely,E4E-Los Angeles Teacher Teacher Policy Team on Career Pathways
Our important work is to discover our students interests, spark
their passion and help them grow. But teachers need
our education leaders to do the same or us.
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Focused on
Students
Each role or opportunity o the career pathway must be directly linked topositive outcomes or our students.
Focused on
Developing
Proessionals
Teachers should have opportunities to grow, develop and gain leadershipthroughout their careers. Movement through the career pathway should bebased on perormance using a robust, multi-measure evaluation system,rather than simply considering years o service.
Focused on
Leveraging Leaders
Roles and opportunities should not just build teacher-leaders, but share their
expertise with colleagues and, ultimately, reach more students.
Multiaceted and
Flexible
No additional role should be required at any stage o a career pathway.Teachers who do choose to take on these roles should be able to returnto their students at any point i they nd that the role is not a t or them.Teaching is a multiaceted proession, and our career pathway shouldrecognize the many areas in which teachers grow and build expertise.
Transparent
A great career pathway should reward perormance, leadership and impact
on students, not ones ability to navigate a maze o paperwork. The processor qualiying or each stage and role must be clear, consistent, equitableand easy to understand.
Feasible, Aordable
and Ecient
We recognize the limits o our budget as well as our school and districtcapacity. Each role should leverage the resources available in the mostecient way possible, and we should invest wisely in the roles that willimpact the largest number o students.
Our Design Principles
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OverviewSupporting Teachers as Empowered Professionals
Emerging
Teacher
Professional
Teacher
Innovating
TeacherLead
Teacher
Professional Teachers
will build a portfolio of
leadership skills to
tackle more
challenging
assignments, increase
their effectiveness and
manage a heavier
course load.
Ratings should be
consistent, but need
not be consecutive
to advance to the
next stage.
Cumulative
ratings
Pathway
steps
Lead Teachers
will expand their
influence beyond the
classroom by
proposing and taking
on additional roles
and mentoring peers.
Innovating Teachers
will increase school
leadership capacity
by assisting in
evaluations, training
mentors and building
a culture of ongoing
growth.
Emerging Teachers
will receive a variety
of supports to help
them face the
challenges of early
career teaching and
lengthen their
careers as effective
educators.
3 effective
ratings required
N/A
or 2 highly effective
ratings required
5 effective
ratings required
or 3 highly effective
ratings required
7 effective
ratings required
with at least 1 highly
effective rating required
Proposed Pathway Steps and Measures
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While each one o these roles may require teachers to teach ewer or smaller classes,this pathway is designed as a menu o options or teachers who wish to take on ad-
ditional leadership. No teacher who wants to ocus solely on his or her own class-room should be orced to do otherwise. Additionally, each opportunity is designedto expand the infuence o teacher-leaders, which ultimately increases the number oeective teachers and improves student achievement.
Enables teachers to keep a full
course load while taking on
extra responsibility. We believe
teachers should be compen-
sated for the extra leadership
and responsibility they provide
to their students and schools.
Both Hybrid and Out-of-Classroom Roles should be compensated to reflect their wider
impact on students and schools.
Empowers teachers to take on
leadership roles that require
them to spend significant time
away from their own classrooms
but does not force them to
leave the classroom entirely.
Empowers teachers to step
outside of the classroom
temporarily in order to expand
their impact to a greater
number of students and
colleagues.
In-Classroom Role Hybrid Role Out-of-Classroom Role
Types o Roles
A Menu o Options
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Current ProblemFor too many o us, the rst ew years o teaching arelargely sink or swim years in which we are let to navi-gate our classrooms with little support or eedback. Eventhe most adept natural athletes need a high-qualitycoach, time to learn the basics and chances to see great-
ness in action. Too oten, these supports are given onlyperunctorily, or not at all.
Emerging Teachers Need...
Time to refect on practice in the company o experts
Social and emotional support
Pedagogical and classroom management support
Opportunities to see great teaching in action
A manageable course load and roster
Strategies or Supporting SuccessEmerging Teachers need a variety o supports to helpthem ace the challenges o early-career teaching anddevelop into lielong eective educators. These teacherswill benet rom the structured eedback this rst stageprovides, and utilize these opportunities to develop their
Creating a Foundation for Success
crat. When teachers leave this rst stage, they will have
received the proper support to show three years o eec-tive teaching or two years o highly eective teaching.
Building Our Leaders:
Teacher Development
Relevant Professional Development: Emerging Teach-ers, like any new entrants to a proession, have a dier-ent set o needs than their more experienced colleagues.Schools can leverage Mentors, coaches and administra-tors to create proessional development tailored to theneeds o new teachers in their building.
Leveraging Our Leaders:
Expanding Access to Colleagues
Robust Mentorship Program: Too oten new teachers aretoo overburdened and overwhelmed to identiy and seek
Emerging
Teacher
Emerging Teachers
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0.96% 0.32%
7.37%
41.35%
50.0%
In a career pathway or teachers, how
impactul do you believe the ollowing role
could be in leveraging and retaining great
teachers and driving student achievement?
Teacher who is a mentor providing
content, social and emotional support
NOT IMPACTFUL
MINIMALLY IMPACTFUL
SOMEWHAT IMPACTFUL
IMPACTFUL
CRITICAL
(310 respondents)
Educators 4 Excellence. Attracting and Retaining Teachers. Teacher Survey. May 2013.
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Improved induction and training that provides all new teach-ers with the support they needshould include high-quality
training ormentors, speciic and requent eedback or
new teachers, release time or them to observe expert teach-
ers, and some choice or new teachers in terms o the mentor
teachers rom whom they seek help.
U ni ted Te ac hers Los Angeles, Te ac her Eval uati on an d Development Fram ework, 2010
out mentors. A ormal school-based mentorship program
(oered by Lead Teachers) will give Emerging Teacherspedagogical and emotional support to navigate early ca-reer challenges.
Shadowing Opportunities: With a reduced or speciallyarranged schedule, Emerging Teachers should have timeto observe other classes and learn eective teachingpractices. This emulates the approach o ull-time teacherapprenticeship programs such as the Boston Teacher Resi-dency or the Aspire Teacher Residency, which are bothseeing aster rates o student growth than their state aver-
ages in both math and language arts.1,2
Leveraging Our Leaders:
Expanding Access to Students
Appropriate Scheduling or Class Load: Emerging Teach-ers should either teach a smaller load o classes (or ex-ample, our periods instead o ve in a middle or highschool, or a smaller number o students in elementary
school) or receive a specialized schedule to ensure a
shared planning period with their Mentor or Content Spe-cialist. Administrators and Mentors should also ensure thatthe Emerging Teacher is not disproportionately assignedstudents with higher needs (see page 11).
Caveats and Considerations
When considering a mentorship program that eaturesa reduced teaching load or new teachers, it is impera-tive to acknowledge the increased workload on otherteachers at the school site.
We know that some schools have a disproportionatenumber o new teachers on a yearly basis. I a schoolhas more Emerging Teachers than any other category,scheduling and the workload o experienced teachersmay become unduly burdensome. We recommend thatthe district provide additional support or capacity toschools that have a high concentration o new teachers.
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A joint study by the Strategic Data Project and Harvard University ound that
new teachers in the Los Angeles Unied School District (LAUSD) are more like-ly to have students in their classrooms who are urther behind academically.
These novice teachers are also less likely to have predictability and continuity
in their teaching assignments rom year to year than their more experienced
peers.3 This is especially problematic, since the same report joins a chorus
o studies showing that teachers are still growing in their rst ew years, and
thereore require additional support.
Mr. Smith is in his rst year o teaching high school math. He begins his day by
shadowing a 10-year veteran Algebra I teacher in his building, helping withsmall group activities, grading and other needs. He then teaches his own Alge-
bra I class, where he requently gets visits and observations by his Mentor or
Content Specialist. He then has a period that is aligned with his Mentors ree
period to debrie his class and receive eedback. He teaches Algebra I or the
next two periods, and then has an opportunity to debrie with his Content Spe-
cialist and get tips or the next day.
Individual schools set schedule
LAUSDs Education Service Centers track new teacher retention
Impact on Student AchievementBenefits to the District
Focusing OnAppropriate Scheduling and Class Load
Why this makes
sense or LAUSD
What this could
look like
Who can control
this
Providing time or shadowing and mentorship willmaximize on-the-job learning that happens amongteachers in the rst two years.
Providing increased supports or new teachers willdecrease the cost o attrition, estimated at over$450 million each year or Caliornia.4
Having administrators and teacher-leaders createproessional development at their schools lever-ages internal resources more eciently.
Supporting and monitoring Emerging Teachers en-sures that students at hard-to-sta schools get ac-cess to better instruction.
Increasing Emerging Teacher retention providesgreater stability or students.
Tailoring proessional development to EmergingTeachers at the school site would enable us toaccelerate the learning curve or teachers and in-crease student gains.
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The Current Problem
The risk o attrition is highest in the early years o a teach-ers careerone out o ve will leave the proession bythe third year o their careers, and three out o ve willleave beore the th year.6 Unortunately, this is also thetime when teachers are making their greatest leaps in
eectiveness.7 Instead o retaining teachers who are mak-ing leaps in perormance, we are losing droves o teach-ers at the moment they are having the greatest impact onstudent learning.
Proessional Teachers Need
Opportunities to ocus on honing their crat
Pathways to build leadership skills
Dierentiated levels o support in pedagogy andclassroom management
Opportunities to see masterul teaching in actionA manageable course load and roster
Supporting Success
Proessional Teachers will begin to build a portolio oleadership skills to enable them to tackle more challeng-ing assignments, increase their project eectiveness andmanage a heavier course load. When teachers leave thisstage, they will have shown ve years o eective or three
years o highly e ective teaching.
Building Our Leaders:
Teacher Development
More Professional Development (PD) Autonomy: In therst stage o a teachers career, decisions about proes-
sional development are made almost entirely by the ad-ministrator and Mentor. In this second stage, teachers
Professional
Teacher
Building on the Basics
Professional Teachers
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1.92%
8.33%
21.79%
46.15%
21.79%
In a career pathway or teachers, how
impactul do you believe the ollowing roles
could be in leveraging and retaining great
teachers and driving student achievement?
Teacher who writes and leads
professional development
NOT IMPACTFUL
MINIMALLY IMPACTFUL
SOMEWHAT IMPACTFUL
IMPACTFUL
CRITICAL
(310 respondents)
Educators 4 Excellence. Attracting and Retaining Teachers. Teacher Survey. May 2013.
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A rewarding career pathway is one where I can improve in the classroom
without being orced out and where I can utilize my own area o interest to
help the whole school improve.
Edward Kusell -Z igel man, high sc hool math and dance, D orsey High Sc hool
should be able to work with their Mentors and admin-
istrators to build an Individual Growth Plan and controlPD selection. While the goals should be agreed uponwith the aid o the Mentor and administrator and madea piece o the evaluation, the method to reach the goalsshould lie increasingly in the hands o the teacher. Thedistrict should work to expand the proessional develop-ment resources oered via its online platorm, and teach-ers should be encouraged and empowered to seek outother opportunities as needed.
Leveraging Our Leaders:
Expanding Access to ColleaguesPeer Observer: Building on the experience o shadow-ing as an Emerging Teacher, teachers in this stage shouldbe encouraged to give inormal eedback to colleagueswhile simultaneously learning best practices. These no-stakes eedback orms should go into the teachers ownportolio o contributions to school and community, as evi-dence o both collaboration and pedagogy.8
We recommend that the Peer Observer be an in-class-room role, to ensure that they are immersed in the crat
o teaching. We also recommend that there be a reason-able cap on the number o observations conducted toallow teachers to ocus on their own classrooms.
Content Specialist: While new teachers will receivemore holistic support rom their Mentors, in order to dis-tribute leadership, Proessional Teachers should havethe opportunity to act as Content Specialists, and workwith Emerging Teachers on their specic content areas.
We recommend that the Content Specialist be a hybrid
role to enable this coach to be able to visit and consult
with new teachers, while honing and improving his or
her own practice.In-House Consultant: A career pathway must enableour schools to leverage teachers as early adopters oemerging technology and innovations who can sharetheir enthusiasm and expertise with peers. The In-HouseConsultant provides an opportunity or teachers who haveexpertise outside o their subject area to share knowledgeand training with colleagues (see page 15).
Leveraging Our Leaders: Expanding Access to
Students
Appropriate Scheduling and Class Load: ProessionalTeachers will have a lighter course or student load i theydecide to take on one o these leadership roles. To refectthe variation in learning styles and speeds, we recom-mend that their schedules be created in consultation withtheir Mentors, who will know the most appropriate andreasonable schedule.
Caveats and Considerations
Just like any leader, Peer Obser vers, Content Special-ists and In-House Consultants need to be evaluated ontheir eectiveness. They should be given regular eed-back on their perormance in these leadership roles.Teachers who are rated below eective in their ownclassroom should not be allowed to continue in their ad-ditional leadership role. Instead, these teacher shouldbe able to ocus on honing their crat.
As the role o In-House Consultants is developed, thereshould be clear rubrics and exemplars to help deter-mine the continued eectiveness o each role, and bestpractices should be shared regularly across schools to
maximize eciency.
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The district has many new initiatives on the horizon, rom Common Core
implementation to tablet integration to technology-enhanced or Blend-ed learning. This position is an opportunity or enthusiastic early adopt-
ers to take on leadership roles. Additionally, this enables our district to
distribute inormation on innovations more quickly and eciently while
building on key learning and eedback rom early implementation.
Mr. Smith, having completed his induction program, has graduated rom
Emerging Teacher to Proessional Teacher. He now teaches a ull class
load. Mr. Smith has gone to several PD sessions on Common Core and
has already started to change the way he teaches graphs and trends. He
applies at his school site and is awarded a position as an In-House Con-
sultant on Common Core. He visits schools that are urther along in the
process, gathers best practices, develops workshops or his colleagues
and opens up his classroom as a model lab or Common Core, which al-
lows him to be both a ull-time teacher and an In-House Consultant.
School approves In-House Consultants
LAUSD and its Education Service Centers share high-priority categories
or consultants (or example, Common Core, Technology Integration or
Project-Based Learning)
Focusing OnIn-House Consultants
Why this makes
sense or LAUSD
What this couldlook like
Who can control
this
Impact on Student AchievementBenefits to the District
Leveraging early adopters allows the district to pi-lot, improve and generate buy-in on new innova-tions in public education beore going to scale.
Increasing the requency o inormal observationsthrough Peer Observers adds capacity to schoolsites.
Increasing supports or early-career teachersreduces the money and skill that are lost whenteachers turn over in the second to th years otheir careers.
Supporting early-career teachers means we will in-crease teacher retention during the years in whichtheir student achievement gains are being maxi-
mized.Leveraging early adopters ensures that students
gain equitable access to District innovations byspeeding up the process or sharing new inorma-tion and training.
Utilizing in-house experts ensures that all studentshave teachers who receive support, proessionaldevelopment and access to new technology.
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The Current ProblemAs we hit our stride in our careers, teachers desperate-ly crave ways to continue to develop and to assist col-leagues in their growth. As proessionals in the businesso learning, we want the same opportunities we promiseour studentsconstant development, ongoing support
and new challenges.
Lead Teachers Need to Impact
Our proessional and career growth
Our colleagues, grade teamsand departments
Innovations in pedagogy
School policies and protocols
Supporting Success
Lead Teachers will continue to build skills in creative prob-lem solving, data analysis and project management. Allo these skills will be built through projects that serve theirstudents, schools and districts. The teachers who leave
this stage will have shown seven years o eective teach-
ing, with at least one year o highly eective teaching.
Building Our Leaders:
Teacher Development
Full Autonomy in Professional Development: LeadTeachers should be empowered to utilize the districtsweb-based platorm to develop Individual GrowthPlans with their administrators and manage their ownprogress.
Leveraging Our Leaders:
Expanding Access to ColleaguesMentor: Mentors can take on the important responsibil-ity o guiding early teachers through the challenging rstew years o their careers. This is an exciting option or
Lead
Teacher
Pushing Ourselves, Pushing One Another
Lead Teachers
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1.61%
4.19%
17.10%
45.81%
31.29%
In a career pathway or teachers, how
impactul do you believe the ollowing role
could be in leveraging and retaining great
teachers and driving student achievement?
Opportunities for teachers to write
proposals for programs and new roles
based on school needs
NOT IMPACTFUL
MINIMALLY IMPACTFUL
SOMEWHAT IMPACTFUL
IMPACTFUL
CRITICAL
(310 respondents)
Educators 4 Excellence. Attracting and Retaining Teachers. Teacher Survey. May 2013.
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Teachers need career paths in order to ind a good it
proessional ly, discover their talents and eel ul illed.
Mar in a Velez , hig h sc hool Sp anis h, IC EF Lou Dantzler
Lead Teachers who wish to help build the pipeline o
the proession. Mentors should be evaluated on peror-mance in this role separately rom their perormance asa teacher. This should be conducted by Mentor Evalu-ators (see page 20). Additionally, their continued par-ticipation should be based on their eectiveness as Men-tors and their continued eectiveness with their students.
We recommend that Mentor Teachers be a hybrid rolein order to accommodate the time teachers will need toconduct observations, deliver eedback and engage inproessional development o mentees.
Leveraging Our Leaders:
Expanding Access to Students
Educator Entrepreneurship Grant: The district shouldprovide Lead Teachers with options to und innovativeideas that contribute to student achievement and theschool community. Lead Teachers can apply or district
grants to und additional school roles or programs that
are rooted in research and address the particular needso their school communities (see page 19).
Caveats and Considerations
Lead Teachers who serve as Mentors are at the sametime growing proessionals. They require training, sup-port and accountability or their role as Mentors. Boththe Mentor and mentee should have the opportunity togive input on the quality o the match and program.
Successul implementation o school-based grants wouldrequire district leaders to be thoughtul about the reviewand selection process and provide clear guidelines andrubrics or applicants. We recommend that LAUSDs Ed-ucation Service Centers take on the application reviewprocess. These local centers will be better equipped tohelp judge local needs and identiy common trends andnecessities across sites.
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In a district that has over 25,000 teachers who serve over 600,000
students, it is unrealistic to expect a single district oce to know the
needs o each individual school and community. But teachers in the
classroom every day see rsthand the policies, programs and initiatives
that have the potential to transorm their students lives. Allowing
teachers to design those solutions would encourage teacher leadership
and entrepreneurship, and inspire decisions to be made closer to the
child.
Mr. Smith is a highly eective sixth-year teacher who has advanced rom
Proessional to Lead Teacher. In collaborating with other schools as an
In-House Consultant, he sees an opportunity or his school to improve
parent engagement, which is clearly linked to student achievement.7
He proposes the role o Family and Community Liaison. This role would
entail engaging in community outreach, acilitating parent workshops
and strategically building partnerships between teachers and amily. I
he can use data at the end o his one-year grant to demonstrate the roles
eectiveness, he can apply or urther unding to strengthen or expand
his program.
Teachers in collaboration with administrators create grant proposals
LAUSDs Education Service Centers approve proposals
Focusing OnEducator Entrepreneurship Grants (EEG)
Why this makes
sense or LAUSD
What this could
look like
Who can controlthis
Impact on Student AchievementBenefits to the District
Providing more autonomy and innovation opportu-nities may incentivize better retention rates, savingcosts o attrition
Leveraging teacher leaders at school sites will re-duce need and cost o external proessional devel-opment consultants
Increasing the number o community partnershipsin our schools will build school capacity
Requiring programs to have student achievementor student need as one o their metrics o successensures a ocus on students
Forging community partnerships can help addressother, non-academic barriers to learning
Increasing student access to community advocatesand partners will build relationships that can beleveraged or college and career
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The Current ProblemResearch consistently shows that a teachers impact on stu-dent achievement tends to plateau ater year seven.10,11In act, teachers in year ve were shown on average tohave similar impacts to teachers in year 20.12 This stag-nation is a disservice to our students learning and our
own proessional growth.
Innovating Teachers Need to Impact
Our proessional and career growth
Our colleagues, grade teams anddepartments
Proessional learning communities
District policy and protocols
Supporting Success
Innovating Teachers should lead both by transerringknowledge and leadership to others, and by modelingongoing proessional growth. Innovating Teachers shouldcontinue to take on new projects and challenges to ex-pand their access to more colleagues and students.
Building Our Leaders:
Teacher Development
Full Autonomy in Professional Development: InnovatingTeachers should continue to have ull autonomy over theirown PD selections in collaboration with their administra-tors and their individual growth plans. These individualsshould be rewarded or meeting goals with increased op-portunities to learn rom their colleagues at other schools,in other districts and at conerences.
Leveraging Our Leaders:Expanding Access to Colleagues
Mentor Evaluator: Any Innovating Teacher who has beena Mentor should be empowered to work with administra-tion to support other teachers who are taking on this re-sponsibility. As a teacher supporting several Mentors, he
Innovating
Teacher
Leading Leaders
Innovating Teachers
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1.61%5.47%
29.26%
42.44%
21.22%
In a career pathway or teachers, how
impactul do you believe the ollowing
opportunity could be in leveraging and
retaining great teachers and driving student
achievement?
Teacher whose role is to align
community and curriculum across
feeder schools (elementary, middle and
high schools)
NOT IMPACTFUL
MINIMALLY IMPACTFUL
SOMEWHAT IMPACTFUL
IMPACTFUL
CRITICAL
(310 respondents)
Educators 4 Excellence. Attracting and Retaining Teachers. Teacher Survey. May 2013.
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Outstanding teaching impacts numerous students
each year, but the improvement is multiplied when
those outstanding teachers are given the roles and
responsibilities to have a broader impact.
Katherine Woodield, high school math, Lakeview Community Char ter High School
or she would also be able to see patterns across grade
levels or departments. The Innovating Teacher would thenbe able to acilitate improved support and training orMentors based on sta trends and needs.
We recommend that the Mentor Evaluator role be an in-classroom role, since check-ins and ollow-ups with Men-tor teachers can happen on an as-needed basis.
Peer Evaluator: Drawing on recommendations romLAUSD and UTLA, we believe peer evaluation should bepart o a multiple measure evaluation system. As with all
Innovating Teachers, Peer Evaluators must be rated highlyeective. It is critical that teacher observers be trainedand calibrated.
We recommend that the Peer Evaluator role be a hybridrole to give evaluators adequate time to observe class-rooms, provide meaningul eedback and ollow up withstruggling teachers.
Leveraging Our Leaders:
Expanding Access to Students
Inter-School Coordinator: Innovating Teachers shouldhave the opportunity to impact students across schoolsites by making sure there is a seamless transition be-tween neighboring elementary, middle and high schools.Inter-School Coordinators could be tasked with analyz-ing data to determine where breaks are occurring in PK
through 12. They would then ensure curriculum alignment
across elementary, middle and high schools in their eed-er patterns.13 For instance, an Inter-School Coordinatormight strengthen literacy skills alignment to ensure thatelementary students are prepared or middle school, whoare then, in turn, prepared or high school. A study romUSC ound that school networks that implemented strongeeder patterns had aster turnarounds and more lastingreorms.14 An Innovating Teacher who has had exten-sive experience with curriculum alignment as a ContentSpecialist may be specially suited to build that strong net-work.
We recommend that the Inter-School Coordinator be anout-o-classroom role and based in one o LAUSDs Educa-tion Service Centers. This will accommodate the manyschools involved in a eeder pattern and suciently sup-port teachers across school sites.
Caveats and Considerations
Our colleagues in other districts have consistently oundthat mentors and evaluators need to be two very distinctroles.
In Hillsborough County, FL, or example, they attributemuch o the success o their mentorship program to thenon-adversarial nature o the program and the brightlines drawn between evaluative visits rom peers andsupportive visits rom mentors.15
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LAUSD has taken the rst steps to develop and implement a thorough,
multi-measure evaluation system. In order to ensure successul implementa-tion, schools need to have the capacity to provide meaningul observations
and eedback. Teacher leaders may be our most under-leveraged tool or
supporting peers and our new evaluation system. Our strongest and most
eective teachers should be encouraged to take on Peer Evaluator roles.
Currently, state law prevents us rom ully leveraging highly eective teach-
ers as Peer Evaluators.16 To help rectiy this problem, our District must
advocate or changes to state law, which allows only licensed administrators
to be ormal evaluators o teacher practice. Luckily, both our District and
union agree and have called or ormal peer observers to be part o teacherevaluation.
Mr. Smith has progressed rom Lead Teacher to Innovating Teacher. Over
the course o his 20-year career, he has taken on a wide range o leadership
roles, including returning to his classroom ull time. He now serves as a Peer
Evaluator, helping to improve the quality o instruction in his school.
Schools select District-normed and trained Peer Evaluators
District provides norming and training to Peer Evaluators
Why this makes
sense or LAUSD
What this couldlook like
Who can control
this
Focusing OnPeer Evaluators
Impact on Student AchievementBenefits to the District
Increasing school capacity to conduct observa-tions supports the implementation o the Districtseducator evaluation system
Utilizing and expanding on technology reduceslong-term spending on proessional development
Increasing capacity to oer teachers eedback,mentorship and support improves quality o studentinstruction
Strengthening instructional alignment between el-ementary, middle and high schools drives studentachievement
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Valuing Our Partners: Learning rom UTLA, LAUSD and OthersOur recommendations refect research on sound strategies proposed rom
UTLA, LAUSD and other districts.
Leverage the voices o teacher-leaders in decision making
Support all teachers rom induction through retirement
Empower teachers to crat policies that serve their own schools and students
Embed proessional development in every stage o a teachers career
Strengthen the peer assistance and review process
Focus on roles that expand reach and impact o highly eective teachers
Focus on roles that can be used to support struggling teachers
Focus on roles that can keep highly eective teachers in the classroom
Provide intensive support or teachers in their early years (Aspire Public Schools,
Hillsborough County Public Schools)Create a multiaceted pathway to capture dierent areas o interest and passion
(Baltimore City Schools, DC Public Schools)
Value the teachers who choose not to take on any extra roles (Arizona CareerLadder Program, Cincinnati Public Schools)
Learningrom UTLA
Learningrom LAUSD
Learning romother districts
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Conclusion
It is a privilege to be a teacher; to have a hand in shaping young minds
who are the very uture o our city and nation. More than a noble proes-
sion, our job requires creative problem solving, management expertise
and dynamic leadership. Giving teachers a path to grow in their class-
rooms and within their careers has the potential to inspire a dogged pur-
suit o continuous learning and excellence. This is precisely what we want
to teach our students.
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1. Does Practice-Based Teacher Preparation Increase Student Achievement? Early Evidence rom the Boston TeacherResidency, National Bureau o Economic Research, 2011.
2. Aspire Public Schools: Academic Achievement, http://www.aspirepublicschools.org/?q=results0910 (October2012).
3. SDP Human Capital Diagnostic: LAUSD, Strategic Data Project and Harvard University, 2012.
4. Teacher Attrition: A Costly Loss to the Nation and to the States, Alliance or Excellent Education, 2005.
5. No Dream Denied: A Pledge or Americas Children, National Commission on Teaching and Americas Future,2003.
6. Many Ways Up, No Reason to Move Out, Center or Teaching Quality, 2011.
7. How and Why Do Teacher Credentials Matter or Student Achievement? CALDER, 2007.
8. See E4E-Los Angeles 2012 Policy Teams Breaking the Stalemate or a more detailed look at this proposal.
9. A new wave o evidence, Southwest Educational Development Laboratory, 2002.
10. Teacher-student matching and the assessment o teacher eectiveness, National Bureau o Economic Research,2006.
11. Teachers, Schools, and Academic Achievement, Econometrica, 2005.
12. Ladd, Helen, Value-Added Modeling o Teacher Credentials: Policy Implications, Duke University and CALDER,2008.
13. Every residential address has a School Feeder Pattern, which assigns students to an elementary school, middle orjunior high school, and high school.
14. Improving schools through networks: A new approach to urban school reorm, USC Rossier School o Education,2002.
15. With addition o mentors, district retains more teachers, Empowering Eective Educators, 2012.
16. See Caliornia Education Code Sec. 44665.
References
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Appendix: Our Process and Methodology
Identiying Our Policy Focus
E4E-Los Angeles held more than 20 ocus groups withroughly 150 teachers who teach in our district schoolsand polled E4E members to identiy the most importantand impactul policy issues.
Reviewing Research
The Teacher Policy Team met or several months toreview research on dierent national attempts to addressteacher attraction and retention as well as local strate-gies being proposed or piloted by UTLA, LAUSD andlocal charter networks. Additionally, the Teacher Policy
Team held conversations with leaders rom LAUSD, TNTPand other national experts.
Conducting Local ResearchThe Teacher Policy Team conducted over 120 peer andadministrator interviews to gather critical stakeholdereedback. We also conducted a survey o over 300teachers and school leaders, including E4E-LA membersand non-members, to understand the most essentialstrategies or attracting and retaining great teachers inhard-to-sta schools.
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Teacher Policy TeamLisa Alva WoodHigh School English
Roosevelt High School
Omar AraizaFourth Grade Special Education
NOW Academy
Sada AshraSixth Grade History
Community Charter Middle School
Phylis HomanThird Grade
Harry Bridges K-8 Span School
John KannoskyHigh School Art
Animo Venice High School
Edward Kussel-ZigelmanHigh School Math and Dance
Dorsey High School
Brandy PricePrincipal
Ingenium Charter School
Jennier Ramirez
KindergartenBarack Obama Charter School
Christopher RecordsSpecial Education
School o Social Justice at Linda E. Marquez High School
Bianca SanchezSecond Grade
NOW Academy
Kelly VallianosThird Grade
Dominguez Elementary School
Marina VelezHigh School Spanish
Lou Dantzler High School
Katherine WoodeldHigh School Math
Lakeview Charter High School
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For ar too long, education policy has been created withouta critical voice at the tablethe voice o classroom teachers.
Educators 4 Excellence (E4E), a teacher-led organization, ischanging this dynamic by placing the voices o teachers at
the oreront o the conversations that shape our classroomsand careers.
E4E has a quickly growing national network o educatorsunited by our Declaration o Teachers Principles and Be-lies. E4E members can learn about education policy and re-search, network with like-minded peers and policymakersand take action by advocating or teacher-created policies that
lit student achievement and the teaching proession.
Learn more at Educators4Excellence.org.
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Los Angeles