New York (and several other states) were awarded Race to the Top money. Does this money translate to big changes for teachers? Race to the Top changes have the potential to create a more consistent flow of information, encourage effective teaching and leadership and promote student achievement - but it remains to be seen whether it will or not.

Last week I received a letter from the DOE advertising two new positions within “transformation” high schools in the city. These positions offer increased pay for increased responsibilities at schools that are struggling and in need of improvement. The caveat is that the teacher only retains his position as long as “he/she maintains a rating of highly effective.” I know there is a new rating system, but to be perfectly honest, I don’t even know what the criteria are. The UFT website provides a Q&A on the rating system which includes more than just observations - test scores, other measures of student achievement, and even peer review. Is offering some teachers more money for work in tougher schools a good thing? Is this rating system a change for the better?

Good teaching is about the small stuff—seating arrangements and phrasing lesson objectives.  How does policy affect the day to day life of a public school teacher?  How does the day to day life of a public school teacher affect policy? 

Many policy makers and education officials are more interested in how to rid schools of unfit teachers than they are in attracting and retaining good ones. That’s unfortunate because the loss of good teachers, especially in high-poverty schools where they are needed most, poses a far greater threat to teacher quality and student learning than the presence of unfit teachers.

We talk a lot about effective teachers on this site and in the national education conversation. This begs the question: how can effective teaching truly be identified? What makes an “effective” teacher? How should teachers be evaluated?  Dennis Van Roekel, President of the NEA, recently talked to John Merrow about his ideas. What are your thoughts on teacher evaluation? How do you think effective teaching should be measured?

Effective teaching is the key to student achievement, but how do you keep those effective teachers in the classroom?

Teachers Network is pleased to share the results of the groundbreaking survey, “What Keeps Effective Teachers in the Classroom,” funded by the Ford Foundation, in partnership with The Center for Teaching Quality and WestEd. The study focused on two primary areas: 1) what keeps quality teachers in the classroom as opposed to what makes them leave, and 2) the contribution of teacher networks to quality teacher development and retention.