THE EDUCATION FRONT

(Editor's Note: As part of this blog's exploration of how progress can be spread across big urban districts, The Education Front is focusing on how districts can develop strong teachers. They, after all, are the key to progress being shared around a district. After reading Bush Institute fellow Jim Guthrie's observations about developing education leaders, Marisa Wolf, Dallas site director of the Texas Teaching Fellows Program, responded with her ideas. Below is an excerpt of her email from last week, along with an explanation of the program.)

At the Texas Teaching Fellows program, we've long grappled with your question of whether strong teachers are born or made, and have come to the conclusion that excellent teaching is a product of both talent and training. Since 2005, we've recruited over 1,000 talented career-changers and recent graduates to teach in high-need schools in Texas, over 400 of those in the Dallas area. So what does it take to prepare effective teachers?

1. Select only the best candidates. In 2009, Texas Teaching Fellows attracted 2,500 applications and accepted just 13% of candidates. They all demonstrate key traits of successful teachers -- strong content knowledge, excellent communication skills, a record of achievement, and an ability to be flexible yet proactive in the face of challenges.

Unfortunately, selectivity is the exception rather than the norm. Statewide, alternative certification programs accept 3 of every 4 teacher applicants. Our state needs to hold its teacher preparation providers more accountable for the effectiveness of their graduates. We applaud the Texas Education Agency's plan to rate Educator Preparation Programs on their teachers' ability to raise student achievement.

2. Provide intensive, relevant training and ongoing support. Texas Teaching Fellows complete rigorous pre-service training, which specifically focuses on effective teaching strategies in high-need schools. The research-based curriculum pairs instructional techniques and classroom management skills, which Fellows apply right away by leading summer school classes and working with experienced teachers. During their first year in the classroom, Fellows receive professional development and coaching from mentors while they complete their certification.

Emerging research is showing that the Texas Teaching Fellows "practitioner" model of preparation - pairing relevant coursework and classroom practice - consistently produces effective teachers. In a 2009 study, teachers certified by the same practitioner model in a sister program in Louisiana outperformed even experienced teachers in raising student achievement in the core content areas of math and reading.

What is the Texas Teaching Fellows program? Here is an explanation:

Texas Teaching Fellows, an initiative of The New Teacher Project (TNTP), is taking a comprehensive approach to improving teacher quality in Texas. The program works hand-in-hand with partner districts in Austin, Dallas, El Paso and San Antonio to build a pool of talented teacher candidates and provide innovative teacher training and certification. Since 2005, Texas Teaching Fellows has recruited and trained over 1,000 talented career-changers and recent graduates to teach in high-need schools. www.texasteachingfellows.org

The New Teacher Project helps school districts and states fulfill the promise of public education by ensuring that all students - especially those from high-need communities - get excellent teachers. A national nonprofit organization founded by teachers, TNTP is driven by the knowledge that although great teachers are the best solution to educational inequality, the nation's education systems do not sufficiently prioritize the goal of effective teachers for all.

In response, TNTP develops customized programs and policy interventions that enable education leaders to find, develop and keep great teachers and achieve reforms that promote effective teaching in every classroom. Since its inception in 1997, TNTP has recruited or trained approximately 37,000 teachers benefiting an estimated 5.9 million students.

TNTP has also released a series of acclaimed studies of the policies and practices that affect the quality of the nation's teacher workforce, most recently including The Widget Effect: Our National Failure to Acknowledge and Act on Differences in Teacher Effectiveness (2009). Today TNTP is active in more than 40 cities, including Baltimore, Chicago, Denver, New Orleans, New York, and Oakland, among others. For more information, please visit www.tntp.org.

Editor's Note: Tom Luce, the Dallas attorney who heads the National Math and Science Initiative, is the second guest blogger to weigh in on our discussion about what it takes to spread progress across a big urban school district. A former assistant secretary of education under George W. Bush, Luce had these thoughts:

The comment I encounter most often when talking about education across the country is that people say, "Oh my goodness. The problem is so overwhelming. Where do we start?" There is a lot of wailing and gnashing of teeth.

But there is hope. We do have American programs that work.

I believe we are proving at the National Math and Science Initiative that one of the most effective approaches to take is to identify those worthy programs that are "tried and true" and then share them with as many students as possible in order to do the most good. We are doing this by replicating math and science programs nationally that have a documented record of success.

Since 2007, NMSI has taken a leadership role in the U.S. in identifying and replicating successful educational programs on a national scale. That is our particular expertise -- "scaling up" programs by expanding them to multiple states, across multiple jurisdictions, and at multiple universities.

While there have been a host of pilot programs focused on the math and science achievement gap, NMSI is one of the few organizations that has rigorously researched and then replicated programs that have produced immediate and sustainable results. We then organize public-private partnerships and coalitions to fund the expansion of the programs, including corporate and foundation donations as well as federal and state funding.

At this moment, NMSI is implementing two "lighthouse programs" that are showing the way ahead. Last year, our AP Training and Incentive Program to help students succeed in college-level classes produced a 52 percent increase in the Advanced Placement courses passed. That is nine times greater than the national average. Just as importantly, this program can help reduce the minority achievement gap - our participating schools showed a 71 percent increase in AP courses passed by African American and Hispanic students.

We also are training a new generation of skilled math and science teachers through the UTeach program. This popular program is now being expanded to 20 universities around the country. Enrollment has nearly doubled. But we have dozens more universities on our waiting list.

Both of these programs were commended in the 2005 National Academies' report "Rising Above the Gathering Storm" for having 10 years of data showing they produce positive results. Both of these programs are proving that you can take a good idea and make it even better by sharing it. "Scaling up" is the kind of commonsense approach that can make a real difference in our country's math and science gap. It's not just hopeful, it's do-able if more people pitch in.

Here's the new reality for public schools in the South: For the first time most of their students are poor and come from a minority family. Soon, the rest of America will catch up with Texas, Louisiana, Georgia and the other Old South states.

A report released by the Southern Education Foundation recently reached those conclusions. The findings present an immediate challenge for states like Texas. And they quickly will test all parts of the country. By 2020, the rest of America's schools will face the same demographic challenge.

What a twisted irony, when you think of how Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his life to lifting people out of poverty. Here we are, 81 years after his birth, and his home region is challenged by schools where students from economically disadvantaged homes are the norm.

True, the South has changed immensely since Dr. King led civil rights marches. African-Americans especially hold many positions of leadership in politics, commerce and culture.

But exams like the National Assessment of Educational Progress show that poor, minority students are at risk of being left behind their affluent Anglo peers. That's the point former Education Secretary Rod Paige, who once led Houston's school district, and his sister, educator Elaine Witty, make in their forthcoming book, "The Black-White Achievement Gap: Why Closing It is the Greatest Civil Rights Issue of our Time."

Indeed, education is the central civil rights issue of our time. But ensuring that poor, minority students are achieving academically is complicated. Educators like Raymund Paredes, Texas' higher education commissioner, spend much of their time determining how to close the "achievement gap."

Here are proven strategies for school districts to pursue:

1. Develop strong middle schools so struggling students don't drop out once they reach high school. Latino dropout rates especially are worrisome.

2. Create quality early reading programs so all children can start reading at grade level at a young age.

3. Train principals to become strong leaders. Students are lost without principals who press their students to achieve, use data to figure out how to improve student progress and stay abreast of the best research.

But educators aren't the only ones who can help close this gap. Parents bear a big part of the responsibility.

This year, as part of the Morning News' project to close the social and economic gap between Dallas' northern and southern halves, our editorial board will highlight how parents can help their children by being involved in their education. They're particularly needed in the crucial middle and high school years, where students can steer off course.

Fortunately, there are ways to meet this demographic challenge. But we all have a stake in the result. As Dr. King warned, so go the least of us, so goes America.

(Editor's note: Today, we launch the first installment of our series on how to spread progress across big urban districts. Jim Nelson, a regular reader of this blog and the former head of the Texas Education Agency and the former Richardson ISD superintendent, takes the first crack. Others will follow in the weeks ahead.)

Bill, I appreciate your education focus for 2010. All of us continue to struggle with the subjects you raise, particularly urban schools and the achievement gap.

While I clearly do not have all the answers, my experiences the last eleven years as commissioner of the Texas Education Agency, superintendent in Richardson, and now executive director of AVID have provided a perch for me to see several elements that are critical to effectively address these and other problems.

I won't even begin to comment on some of the other issues you raised, like the importance of the state's finance system. Texas is again approaching the point where it will have to be addressed. I've been involved in these battles since being elected to the school board in Odessa in 1984. It's just something we have to go through every five years or so. I don't see that changing. As I've traveled around the country for AVID these last four years, I can only opine that Texas is better off than most states. At least we're willing to address it every now and then (through court action generally).

But on how to spread progress across big urban districts, here are some of my thoughts:

Welcome to a new year on The Education Front.

Over the next few months, I'm going to spend some time here exploring what it takes to spread success around a big urban district. We've talked about this topic in the past, and, among other things, I'm going to line up some people with experience in urban districts to share their ideas.

There will be no quick fix, but we have no choice to continue finding the right answers. Urban school districts are where you find large numbers of poor, minority students. If we don't do right by them and create more than pockets of excellence, they will fail us by dropping out or ending up in dead-end jobs. No one benefits from that scenario.

Along these lines, I plan on concentrating on the gap between Latino students and their Anglo peers. We've talked considerably about this challenge the last few months, but we can't let up. This gap too affects the larger society.

Finally, I will try to keep the issue of school finance alive in this blog this year. Texas is looking at a funding shortfall in next year's session. And I hope to continue exploring how the Texas Legislature can solve this problem. This won't require a major overhaul, like the Legislature tried to do in 2006. But it will require action, and perhaps The Education Front can help show the way.

I look forward to our discussions this year, a big part of which are the ideas you provide. As always, let's keep the exchanges civil and show that a blog can be both informative and interesting.