Why is teaching quality an important issue for campus leaders?
As the need for highly qualified teachers has become a national priority, there is a growing awareness of the important role that college and university presidents play in ensuring that teachers receive rigorous, high-quality education and preparation. Campus leaders must have access to solid research-based knowledge and findings on a broad range of issues concerning teaching quality: its importance, what it is, and how it can be nurtured through teacher education programs. In this section, we provide resources on why teaching quality is an important issue for campus leaders, organized into these topics:
Teacher supply and demand
One of the most important reasons that campus leaders should be concerned about teaching quality issues is because our nation has a pressing need for more and better-qualified teachers than it has ever had before. As NCTAF reported in What Matters Most: Teaching for America's Future (1996), the nation will need to hire about 2.2 million additional teachers in the next 10 years. In addition, the report notes that more than half of the teachers who will be teaching ten years from now will be hired in the next decade. Since most of these teachers will be trained in college or university teacher education programs, the need for high-quality teacher education programs has never been greater. For greater depth on the issues of teacher supply and demand, please read:
Teaching quality and student achievement
The need for high-quality teacher preparation programs takes on even greater significance for campus leaders in light of evidence demonstrating that a positive relationship exists between teaching quality and student achievement. For example, as NCTAF reported in Doing What Matters Most: Investing in Quality Teaching (1997), an analysis of 900 Texas school districts revealed that teachers' expertise accounted for about 40% of the measured variance in students' reading and mathematics achievement at grades 1 through 11 - more than any other single factor, including class size and home and family factors. (Ronald F. Ferguson, Paying for Public Education: New Evidence of How and Why Money Matters. Harvard Journal on Legislation, 28 (Summer 1991): pp. 465-98.)1 (
In another study described in Doing What Matters Most, researchers found that elementary school students in Tennessee who were assigned to ineffective teachers for three years in a row scored significantly lower on achievement tests than those assigned to the most effective teachers over the same period of time. (W.L. Sanders and J.C. Rivers, Cumulative and Residual Effects of Teachers on Future Student Achievement. Knoxville: University of Tennessee, 1996. ) 2
Other recent studies have also provided evidence about the relationship between teaching quality and student achievement, including:
- Teaching for High Standards: What Policymakers Need to Know and Be Able to Do (1998),
By Linda Darling-Hammond and Deborah Loewenberg Ball, Co-publication of NCTAF and the Consortium for Policy Research in Education (CPRE).
- Teacher Quality and Student Achievement: A Review of State Policy Evidence (1999),
By Linda Darling-Hammond, Published by the Center for the Study of Teaching and Policy.
- How Teaching Matters: Bringing the Classroom Back Into Discussions of Teacher Quality (2000),
By Howard Weglinsky, Published by the Educational Testing Service.
- Revisiting What States Are Doing to Improve the Quality of Teaching: An Update on Patterns and Trends (2001),
By Eric Hirsch, National Conference of State Legislatures; Julia Koppich, Koppich & Associates; and Michael S. Knapp, University of Washington; Published by the Center for the Study of Teaching and Policy.
Public opinion
Another reason that campus leaders need to be concerned about these issues is that teaching quality has become increasingly important to the public at large and the nation's business leaders. For example, the report The Essential Profession: American Education at the Crossroads describes the results of a national poll conducted in 2000 by Recruiting New Teachers, Inc., which revealed that "ensuring a well-qualified teacher in every classroom" is viewed as an important strategy for improving student achievement by 89% of the American public. This factor was second only to "school safety," which was rated as important by 90% of the survey respondents.
The importance of teaching quality has also become clear to the American business community, as evidenced in a recent report released by a coalition of prominent national business organizations, including the National Alliance of Business, the Business Roundtable, the National Association of Manufacturers, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. In the report, entitled Investing in Teaching, these groups declare their unified commitment to improving the nation's public schools and strongly advocate reforms focused on improving teacher quality.
Inadequate teacher preparation
While all of the factors discussed above are clearly important reasons for campus leaders to be concerned about issues of teaching quality, perhaps the most important reason is that many teachers are not well prepared for their work in our nation's classrooms. A recent national survey found that less than half of America's teachers reported feeling "very well prepared" to meet many of the challenges they face in their classrooms. For example, the survey found that only 36% of all teachers reported feeling very well prepared to implement state or district curriculum and performance standards. The survey also revealed that only 41% reported feeling very well prepared to implement new teaching methods, and only 28% felt very well prepared to use student performance assessment techniques. These findings clearly demonstrate that many teachers are not receiving the kind of preparation they need in their teacher education programs. This, in turn, suggests that campus leaders across the nation need to find ways to significantly improve the quality of their institutions and programs as quickly as possible. For more information on this survey, click on the link below:
Resources for College and University Presidents
|
