Three Relevant Web Sites about Teacher Qualifications

The following topics were touched on in The Teachers We Want; The Teachers We Need. See the following three web sites on teacher qualification; professional development in the US; and measuring the value of teachers:

1. Getting to "Good"
A new radio documentary from American Public Media, "Testing Teachers," probes whether good teaching can be taught or is innate. The documentary looks at various measures underway in Washington, D.C., and issues these raise about effects of poverty versus effects of instruction. It also asks what makes a teacher "good"? Who defines it? And how can a teacher transition into the category of "good" if he or she is struggling? Based on years studying teacher impact, economist Eric Hanushek, whose 1970 study brought focus onto the potential effect of individual teachers, says good teachers are born and not made, and a body of research seems to bear this out. However, the documentary then turns to the efforts of the Public Education Foundation of Chattanooga, Tenn., a local education fund that has paired with the Benwood Foundation to help Chattanooga implement a system of professional development for every teacher, built into teachers' work on a daily basis, along with a program of extensive new teacher mentoring.
See a transcript of the documentary: http://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/features/testing_teachers/transcript.html

2. TPD flagging in the US
A new report from the National Staff Development Council and the Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education -- phase II of a three-phase study -- analyzes the status of professional learning in the United States, and finds some progress in increased support and mentoring for new teachers, but also finds the country has moved backward in providing the vast majority of teachers with the kind of ongoing, intensive professional learning that research shows substantially impacts student learning. In 2008, teachers had fewer opportunities to engage in sustained professional learning opportunities than four years earlier. They were also half as likely to report collaborative efforts in their schools than teachers were in 2000. The intensity of professional development -- which is closely linked to teachers' perceptions of its usefulness and its effectiveness in changing practice and improving student outcomes -- has declined in many instructional areas, including the use of computers for instruction, reading instruction, classroom management, and teaching ELLs and students with disabilities.
See the report: http://www.learningforward.org/stateproflearning.cfm

3. LA Times: Value Added
Adding on to Mary Burns' presentation about "The Teachers We Want; The Teachers We Need," The L.A. Times has published its value-added teacher rankings.
See: http://projects.latimes.com/value-added/