NCTAF Research Reports

Team Up for 21st Century Teaching & Learning:
What Research and Practice Reveal about Professional Learning (June 24, 2010)
With the support of the Pearson Foundation, NCTAF released Team Up for 21st Century Teaching & Learning: What Research and Practice Reveal about Professional Learning. This volume contains the latest research on how learning teams can positively affect school culture, teacher retention, teacher effectiveness, and student achievement. This research is supported by three case studies written by practitioners in the field using teamwork to create successful learning cultures.

How Boomers Can Contribute to Student Success:
Emerging Encore Career Opportunities in K-12 Education (Spring 2010): Civic Ventures report in partnership with NCTAF
The problem: Teacher turnover is rampant, and the nation’s teaching population is older than it has ever been, leading to the potential for mass retirements. More and better recruitment will help but won’t prevent a devastating brain drain. The solution: Boomers – both veteran educators and professionals from other sectors – are needed (and eager) to help students achieve and to strengthen school capacity in encore careers. Such careers combine personal fulfillment, social impact and continued income, enabling people to put their passion to work for the greater good. Creative staffing approaches, from part-time work to the widespread adoption of several new job categories that make the best use of boomer experience and talent, could go a long way toward improving student success.

Who Will Teach? Experience Matters (January 2010): Full Report
Between 2004 and 2008, 300,000 veteran teachers left the workforce for retirement. Baby Boom teachers who made lifelong commitments to education are retiring, and in many cases are taking their hard-earned wisdom with them. Why can't we just recruit our way out of this challenge? Because the rate at which new teachers leave has been increasing steadily over the last 15 years.
For other "Who Will Teach?" Resources click here.

The Next Generation of Learning Teams (October 2009)
Phi Delta Kappan cover story by Tom Carroll.

Learning Teams: Creating What's Next (April 2009): Full Report
Snapshot of State-by-State Demographics of the Teaching Workforce: Report Appendix
According to new NCTAF research, and a national survey of teachers and principals, the nation stands to lose half of its teachers to retirement over the next decade. The report finds that over 50 percent of the nation's principals and teachers are Baby Boomers. To avoid a potential school staffing crisis, NCTAF recommends the concept of Cross-Generational Learning Teams, in which experienced veterans could stay in teaching longer by working with new teachers, providing mentoring, coaching and instructional assistance that will help to improve student performance and reduce attrition rates for new teachers.

NCTAF/GSU Induction Project (August 2008): Final Report

NCTAF and Georgia State University (GSU) developed a model for induction of new teachers in urban high need schools. This model has been funded by the Wachovia Foundation and implemented in high needs schools in metropolitan Atlanta. The goals of the model are to support new teachers with current technological aids, opportunities for professional development, and a supportive community that enhances teaching ability and careers. The expected outcomes of this support for teachers are a higher retention rate for teachers and increased student achievement.

Building a 21st Century U.S. Education System (January 2008)

Robert Wehling and the National Commission on Teaching and America's Future have published a book that brings together the visionary thinking of some of the nation’s finest education thought leaders and presents a diverse set of strategies and solutions to provide every child with a high-quality, world-class educational opportunity.

Reducing the Achievement Gap Through District/Union Collaboration: The Tale of Two School Districts (November 2007): Full Report

On November 13, 2007, the National Commission on Teaching and America's Future (NCTAF) released a report that documents the journey of two school districts to improve teaching quality and reduce gaps in student achievement. The report highlights the progress, challenges and lessons learned from two districts (Clark County, NV and Hamilton County, TN) that are at the forefront of addressing achievement gaps through collaboration of the local teachers' union and the school district. The strategies employed by these two districts and outlined in the report help to ensure that educators remain at the center of reform efforts in their districts and schools. Their stories are proof that unions and districts can collaborate successfully to improve student achievement.

Reducing the Achievement Gap Through District/Union Collaboration: The Tale of Two School Districts: Summary Report

See details above.

Pilot Study: The Cost of Teacher Turnover in Five School Districts (June 2007)

In 2007, the National Commission on Teaching and America's Future (NCTAF) completed an 18-month study of the costs of teacher turnover in five school districts – Chicago Public Schools (Chicago, Illinois), Milwaukee Public Schools (Milwaukee, Wisconsin), Granville County Schools (Granville, North Carolina), Jemez Valley Public Schools (New Mexico), and Santa Rosa Public Schools (New Mexico).

Policy Brief: The High Cost of Teacher Turnover (June 2007)

The National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future (NCTAF) estimates that the national cost of public school teacher turnover could be over $7.3 billion a year. In addition to the nation losing billions of dollars, the policy brief shows that this constant churn drains resources, diminishes teaching quality, and undermines our ability to close the student achievement gap. The policy brief provides NCTAF's recommendations for controlling costs and improving teaching quality.

Induction Into Learning Communities (August 2005)
This is NCTAF's policy paper on induction for new teachers. The paper presents NCTAF's vision for new teacher induction into strong schools that support a career of continuous professional growth. The paper examines data on induction's impact on teacher retention and emerging information on induction's effects on improving student learning, and goes in-depth on models of strong mentoring programs in the U.S. and comprehensive induction systems in other countries.

TLINC® - Evaluation Report (August 2005)
In 2003 the National Commission on Teaching and America's Future convened a design team to launch the Teachers Learning in Networked Communities (TLINC®) project. The initial one-year phase, funded by AT&T, involved a TLINC design team partnered with four communities, Pueblo, CO; Seattle, WA; Portland, ME; and Socorro, TX. The intent of that phase was to investigate how districts might incorporate networked learning communities into their school systems to improve professional practices, especially those related to new teacher induction.

Special Report: Fifty Years After Brown v. Board of Education:
A Two-Tiered Education System (2004)
As we mark the fiftieth anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education , millions of low income students and children of color are concentrated in separate and unequal schools. To understand the extent of this problem NCTAF's staff analyzed the responses of 3,336 teachers in California, Wisconsin, and New York who were randomly surveyed by the Peter Harris Research Group. The findings paint a chilling picture of a two-tiered education system - one for the more affluent, who enjoy the advantages of a relatively healthy educational environment, and the other for the least privileged, who suffer an educational environment, that in many cases, virtually forecloses their chance of learning.

Full Report: No Dream Denied: A Pledge to America's Children (2003)
This report highlights the need for a coordinated system of teacher recruitment, quality teacher preparation, clinical practice, induction, mentorship, and continuing professional development, with accountability built in at each stage, for ensuring high-quality teaching for all students.

No Dream Denied: A Pledge to America's Children (2003): Summary Report
This report summarized the findings of the No Dream Denied: A Pledge to America's Children - Full Report.

No Dream Denied: A Pledge to America's Children: PowerPoint Presentation
This slide presentation outlines the findings of the No Dream Denied: A Pledge to America's Children full report.

Unraveling the "Teacher Shortage" Problem:
Teacher Retention is the Key (2002)
In August 2002, former NCTAF Chairman James Hunt and President Tom Carroll presented evidence to NCTAF's commissioners and partner states suggesting that the nation's widely publicized and often-lamented teacher shortages are, in fact, symptoms resulting from a teacher retention crisis in the United States. To view or download the charts and statistics, please click here.

Solving The Dilemmas of Teacher Supply, Demand, and Standards:
How We Can Ensure A Competent, Caring, and Qualified Teacher For Every Child (2002)
States and communities that have chosen to invest in the recruitment, support, and retention of well-prepared teachers in all schools have been able to pursue excellence and equity. Their efforts appear to have substantial payoff. With carefully crafted policies that rest upon professional standards, invest in serious preparation, and make access to knowledge a priority for all teachers, it is possible to imagine a day when each student will, in fact, have a competent, caring, and qualified teacher.

The Research and Rhetoric on Teacher Certification:
A Response to "Teacher Certification Reconsidered" (2001)
Linda Darling-Hammond responds to the Abell Foundation's report "Teacher Certification Reconsidered: Stumbling for Quality," which questions the link between teacher certification and teacher quality.

Teaching for High Standards: What Policymakers Need to Know and Be Able to Do (1998)
This report discusses the relationship between teacher knowledge and student performance. It suggests the kinds of education and professional development that teachers need in order to learn how to teach to high standards. It also highlights what different states are doing to provide these opportunities for teacher learning, and with what effects.

Doing What Matters Most: Investing in Quality Teaching (1997)
This report offers what we believe is the single most important strategy for achieving America's educational goals: A blueprint for recruiting, preparing, and supporting excellent teachers in all of America's schools. The plan is aimed at ensuring that all communities have teachers with the knowledge and skills they need to teach so that all children can learn, and all school systems are organized to support teachers in this work.

What Matters Most: Teaching for America's Future (1996)
This report provides a blueprint for recruiting, preparing, and supporting excellent teachers all across America in an effort to ensure that all children can learn. It describes a new infrastructure for professional learning and an accountability system that guarantees attention to standards for educators as well as students at every level.