A r c h i v e d I n f o r m a t i o n

This is a Working Document
The Seven Priorities of the U.S. Department of Education (July 1997)

Priority Five:
A Talented, Dedicated and Well-Prepared Teacher in Every Classroom

Importance of Priority Five

Without high-quality teachers in every classroom, the nation will not be able to meet any of the first four priorities. And yet, far too many teachers lack the training and time to acquire new skills to teach to challenging standards. A number of other alarming trends compound this problem. For example, roughly one-fourth of newly hired teachers lack the qualifications for their jobs, with 75 percent of urban districts hiring teachers without proper qualifications. Large numbers of teachers are teaching out of their fields of certification. In addition, 30 percent of all new teachers leave the profession in the first three years. As standards are raised, so will the cognitive demands on teachers. Priority five is particularly important because the nation will have to hire 2 million teachers in the next decade to accommodate the second baby boom and a retiring teacher force.⁽¹⁷⁾

Strategy for Supporting Priority Five

Step 1: Identifying Critical Areas Affecting Teacher Quality

The Department has identified six areas that affect the quality of teachers across the nation. These are:

Teacher Recruitment -- recruiting talented teachers of all ages, particularly people of diverse backgrounds.
Preservice Training for Future Teachers -- improving preservice preparation so that future teachers can teach to world-class standards and meet high certification and licensing standards.
Licensing -- supporting more rigorous teacher licensing and certification requirements.
Retaining Beginning Teachers -- increasing special efforts to retain beginning teachers in their first few years of teaching, because we now lose 30% due to a lack of support.
In-service Professional Development for Existing Staff -- strengthening the in-service professional development of teachers by states, schools, colleges, partnerships and teacher networks.
Teacher Incentives and Accountability -- recognizing and rewarding good teachers and improving or removing incompetent ones.

Step 2: Identifying How the Department Can Support Priority Five

In addition to using its bully-pulpit to promote excellence and accountability in teaching, the Department is supporting the following kinds of activities to help leverage improvements in teacher quality nationwide:

National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards has developed national standards of excellence for master teachers who demonstrate exceptional performance. President Clinton's FY98 budget contains a proposal to support the efforts of 100,000 more teachers over the next decade to seek board certification as master teachers -- so that, on average, every public school would have at least one such teacher on its staff.
Report Card. Starting in 1998, the Department will issue a biennial report card on progress made by the nation in improving teacher quality.
Title V Task Force. In its proposal to reauthorize the Higher Education Act, the Department will focus Title V of that legislation on recruitment, pre-service and support for beginning teachers. It is also exploring incentives to encourage people, particularly minorities, to become teachers and work in underserved areas.
Existing Department Programs. The Department will continue to improve existing professional development programs, such as the Dwight D. Eisenhower Professional Development Program, and align them to student content and teaching standards. It will encourage states and communities to redirect more resources from Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, as well as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and Bilingual Education, to support high-quality professional development. Moreover, it is examining ways to strengthen or redirect other programs and grants to address its top concern within priority five -- recruitment, preparation, and support for beginning teachers.
Research, Dissemination, Bully-Pulpit. The Department will continue supporting research, development, assistance and dissemination to promote effective practices. This includes: its National Awards Program for Model Professional Development that recognizes and widely disseminates the work of the award-winning schools and districts; a new research and development center which will focus on policies to improve teaching; and a newly-funded consortium of organizations to provide the field direct assistance in devising strategies for preparing, inducting and providing career-long professional development for K-12 teachers.

End Notes:

National Commission on Teaching and America's Future.

Your comments on this document are invited, please send them to 7priorities@ed.gov.

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