Providing targeted and extensive support for educators is a pillar of the Operation Public Education (OPE) framework. For students to meet demanding standards, schools and districts need to provide their educators with access to resources to develop skills that will help them become better teachers and administrators. The framework offers a vision of new supports that is data-driven, job-embedded, and teacher-led and engages educators in ongoing training that is linked to the learning needs of their students. OPE has identified six components that work together to create this system of support. Accompanied by the new reward structure, these supports can help to attract and retain high quality educators. See below to learn more about the support system’s key principles and individual components.
This new support system will focus on data-driven decision-making and enhance professional development opportunities to ensure that educators have the time and resources they need to increase student achievement. It should be:
- Data-Driven. To accurately assess their impact in the classroom, teachers need access to data that shows how much students have grown both at the end of and throughout the school year. Adequate training will be required to ensure all educators – teachers, principals, and district level administrators – can effectively utilize this data to improve student achievement. Further, data should be used to ensure that professional development aligns with teacher, student, and school need.
- Job-Embedded and Collaborative. To be most effective, professional development must be more than just one-shot, short-term opportunities. Educators should be provided with job-embedded support, particularly at critical career junctures, and schools should foster learning communities to increase collaboration among educators.
- Teacher-Led. Teachers should be given a greatly expanded role in decisions over curricula and professional development. In this type of support system, teachers are empowered to work together to improve practice and increase student learning. For more information, see the Professional Unionism page.
- Aligned with Evaluation Systems. Districts should ensure that new systems of support align with teacher evaluation and compensation systems. Professional development should be viewed as part of a broader system where all resources are considered to be investments in developing teacher capacity.
For additional information on principles of effective professional development, refer to the National Staff Development Council’s website.
Each of the six components of the OPE system of support is briefly described below and highlighted as a page of this website. These component pages include an overview of and rationale for each component, specific recommendations, pertinent research and publications, useful websites, and concrete tools for implementation.
Integrated Assessment
If teachers are held accountable for student learning results, districts should, in turn, provide them with access to data to improve their instruction. This requires an assessment regime that is characterized by ongoing student assessment. In this regime, assessment must not be viewed as a one-time process that occurs at the end of the year. Rather, an integrated assessment system consists of summative assessments, formative assessments, and assessments for learning. An integrated assessment system aligns summative exams with formative assessments administered throughout the school year and offers professional development that trains teachers to understand how to use assessments to improve student learning.
Value-Added Training
Value-added analysis has gained considerable momentum as a new way to assess the effectiveness of schools and teachers. Value-added assessment by itself does not improve student achievement, but when administrators and teachers are trained to use data to drive decision-making at the district, school, classroom, and individual student level, value-added becomes a powerful diagnostic tool. Districts interested in maximizing the utility and power of value-added metrics must accompany the implementation of a value-added system with high-quality value-added training.
Value-Added as a Diagnostic
Value-added assessment is a powerful diagnostic tool that provides educators with data to inform classroom instruction and increase levels of student achievement. These measures determine the growth of individual students during each academic year and project growth trajectories for the future. Proactive use of value-added data can serve as the basis for strategic decisions at multiple levels of the system.
Mentoring and Induction
Supporting new teachers is a critical strategy for improving teacher retention and increasing the professionalization of the teaching force. Quality mentoring and induction programs provide new teachers with consistent feedback and support from a trained mentor. These programs also integrate new teachers into the professional culture of the school. When implemented effectively, they can help to attract, support, and retain highly effective educators.
Peer Assistance and Review
In peer assistance and review (PAR) programs, teachers assume responsibility for the observation of their colleagues through a district-wide peer review process. PAR provides a formula for teacher professional development and an evaluation system that identifies, remediates, and, if necessary, dismisses those who show little aptitude for the classroom. Most PAR programs have two components: an intern program for all newly hired teachers in the district and an intervention program for experienced teachers who are struggling with classroom instruction. At the close of the remediation process, the consulting teachers will recommend whether the intervention teacher should remain in the classroom or be dismissed.
Strategic Review
Any system that places teaching quality at the heart of its reform will require significant investment in professional development to support teachers in their effort to improve instructional practice. While districts often devote significant resources to professional development, the efforts are often uncoordinated and do not add up to a coherent whole that targets a district’s most important priorities. A professional development strategic review compiles and codes all current investments and practices to create a full picture of professional development investments. Armed with this information, leaders can make informed decisions about redirecting monies to more aligned strategies and leveraging funds for additional investments.