Highly Effective Teachers & Leaders

Team of teachers meetingResearch shows that top-performing teachers can make a dramatic difference in the achievement of their students and suggests that the impact of being assigned to top-performing teachers year after year is enough to significantly narrow achievement gaps. To promote the goal of having an effective teacher in every classroom and an effective principal in every school, the U.S. Department of Education (ED) has made Highly Effective Teachers and Leaders a priority.

ED supports this priority by

  • encouraging fair evaluation systems for teachers and principals,
  • providing assistance to strengthen the education profession,
  • promoting the equitable distribution of effective teachers and principals, and
  • supporting the availability of meaningful performance data for measure results.

To support this priority, the U.S. Department of Education has created the Center on Great Teachers and Leaders.


  • ASCD
  • Center on Great Teachers and Leaders
  • Find What Works
  • Education Resources Information Center
  • Learning Forward
  • National Alliance of Black School Educators
  • National Association of Elementary School Principals
  • National Association of Secondary School Principals
  • Arkansas- Office of Educator Effectiveness
  • Colorado - Attracting, Preparing and Supporting Effective Educators
  • Louisiana – COMPASS
  • Missouri – Office of Educator Quality
  • Oklahoma – Teacher and Leader Effectiveness
Multi-State Collaboration Leads to Creation of Micro-credentialing in an Educational Human Capital System Framework (September 2019) September 19, 2019

A multi-state collaboration hosted by the South Central Comprehensive Center (SC3) at the University of Oklahoma Outreach has released a co-created resource, Micro-credentialing in an Educational Human Capital System Framework, to assist state and local education agencies.

School Improvement in Oklahoma (SC3 Projects Update June 2019) June 17, 2019

The South Central Comprehensive Center (SC3) at the University of Oklahoma Outreach is completing a series of professional learning sessions for the Oklahoma State Department of Education (OSDE) Office of School Support and Improvement (OSSI).

First Class for Teachers in Oklahoma October 25, 2018

SC3 and the Oklahoma State Dept. of Education support 50 first-year elementary and secondary teachers during the 2018-19 school year.