Priorities for Schools & Districts

Potential Teachers

Collaborate to develop and cosponsor future teacher programs such as Educators Rising with learning experiences or coursework aligned with Educators Rising’s 2016 standards. Recommended collaborators: NEA and Affiliates, TPPs

Jointly lobby for resources to improve professional level of salaries throughout teacher careers. Recommended collaborators: NEA and Affiliates

Collaboratively bargain for contract improvements and lobby for changes in policies that negatively impact teacher working conditions and career stability. Recommended collaborators: NEA and Affiliates

Ensure that every PreK-12 student — regardless of socioeconomic status, geographic location, race, gender, or other personal characteristic — has access to a challenging and broad curriculum that includes: access to upper-level coursework; specialized programs of interest to individual students; and 21st century skills that foster creativity and problem solving, and open a full range of postsecondary opportunities. Recommended collaborators: Teachers, NEA and Affiliates, TPPs, External Partners/Community, Policymakers

Ensure that teaching and learning experienced by PreK-12 students engages them with authentic experiences, community connections, opportunities to choose the content and kinds of demonstrations of mastery that best represent their individual learning styles. Recommended collaborators: Teachers, NEA and Affiliates, TPPs, External Partners/Community, Policymakers

Aspiring Teachers

Collaborate in the design, implementation, evaluation, and improvement of TPPs. Use recommendations from NEA’s 2014 “Teacher Residencies” as a guide for design. Include elements such as:

• Ensure candidates explore the range of experiences both within PreK-12 classrooms and beyond to be “profession ready” upon program completion.

• Ensure cooperating teachers have the teaching skills and abilities to positively foster professional growth for the aspiring teachers with whom they work.

• Provide ongoing training for cooperating teachers, give them feedback on their work in those roles, and gather feedback from them about programs.

• Collaboratively and purposefully pair candidates with cooperating teachers.

• Integrate cooperating teachers as faculty within the TPP.

• Provide compensation for additional expertise and responsibilities of serving as cooperating teacher.

• Use professional/accomplished PreK-12 teachers more broadly in TPP roles both in schools and on campus.

• Ensure that TPP faculty also have recent, relevant PreK-12 experience.

• Focus programs on preparing candidates to meet the needs of every student through culturally responsive practice and sensitivity to student differences including race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation/gender identification, disability, religious beliefs, residence, and primary language.

Recommended collaborators: NEA and Affiliates, TPPs

Partner with PreK-12 schools to provide academic support to promising candidates needing assistance. Programs must model culturally responsive teaching and best practices in authentic learning environments. Recommended collaborators: NEA and Affiliates, TPPs

Develop and implement extensive experiences for candidates to work with parents, families, and in the community, within the school and beyond. Recommended collaborators: NEA and Affiliates, TPPs, External Partners/Community

Ensure candidates develop the knowledge, skills, and dispositions to meaningfully engage parents in the teaching/learning process and to develop learning experiences that are culturally responsive to, and honor the background of, each student. Recommended collaborators: NEA and Affiliates, TPPs, External Partners/Community

Collaboratively develop and implement experiences to help aspiring teachers build positive connections with the communities where they work, and for schools, unions, and communities to provide support for the psychological, cultural, and emotional needs of the aspiring teacher. Recommended collaborators: Teachers, NEA and Affiliates, TPPs, External Partners/Community

Create a network of preparation programs, with schools and districts sharing successful TPP practices and fostering collaboration across all partners. Recommended collaborators: NEA and Affiliates, TPPs

Provide candidates with access to experiences to enhance their development of “profession ready” knowledge, skills, and dispositions.

Bargain for additional compensation for cooperating teachers that’s commensurate with their specialized knowledge, training, and increased responsibilities. Recommended collaborators: NEA and Affiliates

Emerging Teachers

Collaboratively bargain for and implement research-based new teacher induction programs with the following characteristics:

• New teachers receive frequent mentoring and coaching in their areas of interest and in areas where they need improvement, for at least two years.

• Mentors/coaches have the teaching skills and abilities to positively foster professional growth for the emerging teachers with whom they work.

• Mentors/coaches receive ongoing professional development for their roles and are carefully matched to their mentees’ teaching assignments and needs.

• Support is tiered and matched to the emerging teacher’s developmental needs.

• New teacher responsibilities are modified to address demands of beginning a new career.

• Mentors, coaches, and new teachers have time during the contract day to perform the conferencing, etc., for the program.

• New teachers receive ongoing, meaningful feedback on performance and areas for improvement.

• New teacher evaluations are tiered to match developmental level and align with support for skill development.

Recommended collaborators: NEA and Affiliates

Collaboratively develop and implement experiences to help emerging teachers build positive connections with the communities where they work. Recommended collaborators: Teachers, NEA and Affiliates, TPPs, External Partners/Community

Collaboratively bargain, develop, implement, monitor, and adjust a research-based peer review evaluation system. Establish a culture that trusts the fairness of the evaluation system. Extend the evaluation system to include targeted professional development support for teachers struggling to meet performance standards. Recommended collaborators: NEA and Affiliates

Align induction experiences and emerging teacher evaluations with the standards and requirements for achieving full professional licensure.

Professional Teachers

Collaboratively bargain for and implement professional development systems that align with Learning Forward (2011) standards and have the following characteristics:

• Each teacher participates in non-evaluative peer coaching and peer observation.

• Teachers collaborate in developing group goals (department, grade level, school).

• Each individual teacher has autonomy to set and pursue professional growth goals.

• Time in the school day and other resources are provided (over several months) for learning and development of any professional skill.

• Targeted support is provided for pursuit of National Board Certification and other demonstrations of accomplished practice.

• Targeted support is provided for developing teacher leadership skills.

• Teachers are encouraged to engage in action research, individually and in groups.

• Networking is encouraged both within and between departments and grades, and beyond the school and district.

Recommended collaborators: NEA and Affiliates

Collaborate with teachers and communities in the development of culturally responsive opportunities for students to engage in authentic community-based learning projects.

Collaboratively bargain for, develop, implement, monitor, and adjust a trusted system of evaluation via peer-review. (Extended from Emerging Teacher career phase. Recommended collaborators: NEA and Affiliates

Accomplished Teachers

Collaborate in the development and use of local (department, grade, school) and virtual networks of teachers to serve as networked improvement communities. Recommended collaborators: NEA and Affiliates, TPPs

Extend the system of professional supports from the professional phase to include Accomplished Teacher and Teacher Leader phases. Recommended collaborators: NEA and Affiliates

Provide opportunities for accomplished teachers with appropriate leadership skills to use those skills within the district.