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Every child needs--and deserves--dedicated, outstanding teachers, who know their subject matter, are effectively trained, and know how to teach to high standards and to make learning come alive for students.
| President Clinton September 1998 |
Teaching is the essential profession, the one that makes all other professions possible. Without well-qualified, caring, and committed teachers, neither improved curricula and assessments, nor safe schools--not even the highest standards in the world--will ensure that our children are prepared for the challenges and opportunities in America's third century. More than ever before in our history, education will make the difference between those who will prosper in the new economy and those who will be left behind. Teaching is the profession that is shaping this education and therefore America's future--molding the skills of our future workforce and laying the foundation for good citizenship and full participation in community and civic life.
Accordingly, what teachers know and are able to do is of critical importance to the nation, as is the task of preparing and supporting the career-long development of teachers' knowledge and skills. Yet, while we do not ask our doctors to perform surgery after just several weeks of clinical experience, we expect students to prepare to become teachers with only a few weeks of in-classroom training. While employees in high-performance industries have opportunities for professional growth and learning, many teachers do not receive the opportunities for continuous learning that they need to teach effectively.
It is time we give teachers the education and support that they need to teach our children to the high standards that the challenges of the 21st century demand. This is why the report of the National Commission on Teaching and America's Future, issued in September 1996, makes clear the urgency of addressing teacher quality and why President Clinton declared improving education his first priority. In A Call to Action for American Education in the 21st Century he emphasizes the immediate need for talented and dedicated teachers in every classroom.
Education is key to a vibrant and prosperous America seeking to maximize the contributions of all its citizens and embracing the richness and possibilities that our nation's diversity affords, as the new century approaches. To achieve this future, we must set high standards for all students and seek to develop their potential through high expectations, organized effort, caring, commitment, and talented teachers in every classroom. However, as elementary as these goals sound, America faces daunting challenges in trying to achieve them.
Societal changes are putting new pressures on teachers and schools. America's classrooms are serving more students and more diverse students--racially, culturally, and linguistically--than ever before. Students with learning disabilities, physical impairments, and limited English proficiency are increasingly being served in regular education classrooms. The societal conditions in which children grow up and changing family structures are impacting classrooms. More students are coming to school at risk because of poverty, inadequate nutrition, housing, health and medical care, and other adverse conditions at home. Schools are seeing more students in crisis because of violence, drug and alcohol abuse, and other threats in their homes and communities.
At the same time, powerful economic changes are placing new demands on students, teachers, and schools. In the early 1900s, just 10 percent of the nation's jobs required a college-level education. Rote teaching and learning provided what the economy of the age demanded: a reliable labor force for the industrial era's routinized assembly lines. In contrast, more than half of the jobs that will be created between today and the 21st century will require some college, and over 70 percent of all jobs will require technological literacy.(1) Solid basic skills, critical thinking, lifelong learning, and technological literacy have become the new keys to productivity in our knowledge-based society. In the new century, almost every adult will need to attend college or participate in specialized training throughout his or her lifetime in order to navigate rapidly changing economic conditions. No longer can we educate only a select few to high standards. Our schools must be safe havens of learning that help all children reach for high standards and acquire problem-solving skills in addition to instilling in them the core values of responsibility, hard work, and respect.
With more people "thinking for a living," instructional practices are changing too. New knowledge about how children develop and learn is transforming school organization--and the roles of the people in these re-organized schools. Mastery of the basics, inquiry, collaboration, and responsibility are the new hallmarks of effective education. New and veteran teachers alike must develop new knowledge and skills to respond to these new demands.
Moreover, just as America's economic well-being depends on well-educated young people who can contribute in a modern, technologically complex workforce, the nation's future as a democracy requires adults capable of building more vibrant, caring, and civil communities for all its people in an increasingly diverse society. Americans must be capable of participating in and protecting their democratic institutions. The challenge facing public education is to prepare children for each of these essential roles, while providing them the knowledge and skills necessary to lead productive and fulfilling lives as individuals and as members of families.
At the same time that societal changes are demanding more and more from our schools and teachers, recruiting and preparing the next generation of teachers present us with major challenges. In 1997, a record number of students entered our nation's schools, pushing already overcrowded classrooms to their limits. By 2007, America's public and private schools will educate nearly three million more children than they do today--a total of more than 54 million youngsters. Approximately 90 percent of these students will be educated in our nation's public schools. These enrollment increases are occurring just as teacher retirements are beginning to accelerate. This "demographic double whammy" means that over the next decade more than two million teachers will need to be hired to match the enrollment in our elementary and secondary classrooms. Over half of these will be first-time teachers, and they will need to be the best-prepared teachers our nation has ever known.(2)
The traditional response of districts facing an increased demand for teachers has been to lower its standards and hire less qualified teachers. Thus, shortages of teachers will not be shortages in quantity; schools will usually hire someone for the front of each classroom. The shortages will be in quality and in diversity.
In its recent report, What Matters Most: Teaching for America's Future, the National Commission on Teaching and America's Future found that, already, more than 50,000 people who lack the training for the job enter the teaching profession annually on emergency or provisional licenses. The Commission also found that fewer than 75 percent of America's teachers can be considered fully qualified: that is, having studied child development, learning, and teaching methods; holding degrees in their subject areas; and having passed state licensure requirements. Twenty-eight percent of teachers whose main assignments are in the core academic subjects do not have even a college minor in these fields.(3)
Shortages of qualified teachers have already reached critical proportions in our high-poverty communities; in many fields such as science, mathematics, bilingual education, and special education; in states experiencing the greatest population increases (for example, California, Nevada, Florida, and Texas, among others); and in the population of teachers from diverse racial, cultural, and linguistic backgrounds.
Teaching excellence and diversity are inextricably connected as are teaching excellence and academic preparation. However, while a third of America's students are minority, only 13 percent of their teachers are, and that gap is growing.(4) Quality teaching in the 21st century means bringing distinctive life experiences and perspectives in to the classroom; providing valuable role models for minority and non-minority students alike; enriching the curriculum, assessment, and school climate; and strengthening connections to parents and communities.
Shortages of qualified teachers will not be felt in all communities. While wealthy suburban districts may always have an abundance of applications, urban and disadvantaged rural districts often find it difficult to attract and retain qualified teachers. It is usually the schools in high-poverty communities that, faced with shortages of qualified teachers, hire teachers who are not fully qualified to teach. For example, the Commission reported that students in the schools with the highest minority enrollments--usually schools in high-poverty areas--have less than a 50 percent chance of having a science or math teacher with a license or degree in the field he or she teaches.(5) As a consequence, America's most challenging classrooms are often forced to make do with the nation's least qualified teachers. Millions of school children who could benefit most from effective teaching are denied access to a quality education. This is a fundamental issue of equity.
Teacher shortages of all kinds are exacerbated by poor support for both new and veteran teachers. Attrition rates for new teachers in urban districts can sometimes reach 50 percent in the first five years of teaching because of inadequate preparation (particularly for those entering teaching on emergency permits or waivers), challenging assignments, and the paucity of high-quality mentoring and induction programs available for novice teachers.(6) Such attrition rates drain district resources for recruitment, and the revolving-door staffing patterns they foster in some schools create a considerable burden on school climate and student performance. In addition, teachers in high-poverty settings often become "de-professionalized" because they lack the professional development opportunities that are more often available to those who teach in the suburbs. The absence of quality professional development is a strong disincentive for teachers to choose schools in urban and rural areas. It also denies development opportunities to the very teachers who face the most challenges in the classroom.
Finally, recruiting and retaining high-quality individuals into the profession will require states and communities to re-examine salary levels for beginning and veteran teachers as they increase standards for the profession. A few communities and states have recognized the importance of this balance and have increased teachers' salaries to make them comparable to those of other professions. However, the vast majority of teachers still earn incomes that are far lower than these. Our nation's democracy and economy depend on the education that teachers provide. Our society will not successfully attract and retain the highest quality teachers until we place sufficient value on the work that they do.
A complex set of changes--changing demographics, changing education, societal, and economic forces, the need for many new recruits in the teaching force, and the need for improved teacher quality--does not have to spell disaster. These challenges offer a window of opportunity for making dramatic improvements in the ways we recruit and prepare teachers, support them in the critical first few years and provide for their ongoing learning.
Many policy makers across the country, teacher educators, and teachers themselves are beginning to recognize that a teaching career is a continuum, not a series of disconnected steps stacked on top of each other. A professional career begins with recruitment, continues through preparation and initial licensing, and extends to lifelong professional development. Every stage in this continuum must be rigorous.
Some excellent examples of promising policies and practices in the teaching profession are emerging. They cover the continuum of a teaching career, including:
The profiles in this book address each of the practices listed above. They were nominated as promising practices by regional education laboratories, reviews of research literature, and researchers for the national Commission. All of these sources, as well as interviews with educators and others associated with the practices and the commission report itself provided the basis for the descriptions of what constitutes best practices in teaching.
These examples of promising practices in the teaching profession today represent years of effort and the wisdom of many lessons learned. But they are not a definitive list: the current effort to ensure quality throughout the teaching profession is too dynamic and is happening in too many places to allow for a comprehensive evaluation. What will not change, however, is the need for excellent teachers.
Teachers are the most basic educational resource communities provide their children. Our goal must be to provide the training and support that will ensure that there is a talented, dedicated, and well-prepared teacher in every classroom.
[Recruiting Talented and Diverse People Into the Teaching Profession]