NATIONAL HEARING - The Engine of Successful Education Reform: Effective Teachers and Principals

  Wednesday, October 28^th, 10:00 AM – 12:30 PM MDT
  Colorado State Capitol Building
  Old Supreme Court Chambers
  Denver, CO

To read a summary of our hearing, please click here.

The Aspen Institute's Commission on No Child Left Behind (NCLB) held a national public hearing on improving teacher and principal effectiveness.  Colorado State Senator Mike Johnston, a former principal, will ledfellow members of the Commission’s Committee on Teacher and Principal Effectiveness in hearing testimony and engaging in in-depth dialogue with witnesses to gain insight for improving NCLB.   Confirmed participants included: 

• Hon. Barbara O’Brien, Lieutenant Governor of Colorado
• Mr. Tom Boasberg, Superintendent, Denver Public Schools
• Mr. Dennis Van Roekel, President, National Education Association, Washington, DC (testimony)
• Dr. F. King Alexander, President, California State University, Long Beach (testimony)
• Ms. Aqua Stovall, Principal, Arthur Ashe Charter School, New Orleans, LA
• Dr. Dan Goldhaber, Research Professor, Center on Reinventing Public Education, University of Washington, Seattle, WA (testimony)

Effective teachers are one of the most important factors in student success.  And yet only four states require that student learning be the primary criterion in teacher evaluations, and only two states require that teacher effectiveness be considered as part of tenure decisions, according to the National Council on Teacher Quality.  In 2007, the Commission called for a major shift in the way we measure teacher quality—from evaluations based on qualifications to those based significantly on classroom results. 

Since then, more states have developed the sophisticated data systems needed to measure teacher and principal effectiveness, and now, American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funds may fuel additional progress in improving teacher and principal effectiveness.  The potential for dramatic improvements in schools is great—but many questions remain about how to help schools get the best principals and teachers for their students.

To help answer these questions, the Commission hearing investigated how teacher and principal effectiveness can be measured; how we can attract, prepare, better support, and retain effective teachers and principals and remove those who do not improve; how to ensure disadvantaged students have access to effective educators and school leaders; and how NCLB can more effectively support teacher and principal effectiveness. 

Participating commissioners were:

• Mr. Mike Johnston, Colorado State Senator and Senior Policy Advisor to New Leaders for New Schools
• Dr. Jane Hannaway, Director, Education Policy Center, The Urban Institute, and Director, National Center for Analysis of Longitudinal Data in Education Research (CALDER)
• Ms. Danika LaCroix, Principal, Young Scholars’ Academy for Discovery and Exploration, Brooklyn, NY
• Dr. J. Michael Ortiz, President, California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, CA
• Ms. Tasia Providence, Master Educator, District of Columbia Public Schools

The hearing was the second in a series to build upon the Commission’s February 2007 recommendations for improving NCLB, as well as more than two years’ additional field experience with NCLB, new requirements under the ARRA, and other developments.  The Commission will release a summary following the hearing, and will issue its updated recommendations next year.  Information on the Commission’s previous hearing on School Improvement, held in September 2009, is available here.  To learn more about the Commission’s new phase of work, please visit our website. 

For background on teacher and principal effectiveness, including funding and requirements under NCLB, go here.  The hearing was taped and archivedon the Commission's website.

The Commission encourages all interested organizations to submit written testimony on any NCLB topic for inclusion in the public record on our website.  Testimony should be submitted via email (titled “Testimony”) to nclb.commission@aspeninstitute.org.  Individuals may submit comments via the “Your NCLB Comments” tab on the Commission’s website.

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The Commission on No Child Left Behind (www.nclbcommission.org and on Facebook) is a bipartisan effort to identify and build support for improvements in federal education policy to ensure the nation has effective tools to spur academic achievement and close the achievement gap. Following a comprehensive review process with extensive public input, the Commission in 2007 released a blueprint for strengthening NCLB by preserving the law’s core principles and making needed changes to accelerate progress toward achieving its goals, particularly in the areas of teacher and principal effectiveness, robust accountability and data, higher academic standards, stronger high schools, and increased options for students. The Commission is funded by some of the nation’s leading foundations, including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Joyce Foundation, and the GE Foundation.  The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in the Commission’s work should not be attributed to the donors.