Highly Effective Teachers and Leaders
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Confronting Poverty's Challenges, a Missouri District Regains Academic Footing: Superintendent Tiffany Anderson
This link explores St. Louis, Missouri Superintendent Tiffany Anderson's three lessons on how high-poverty communities can improve academic achievement by focusing on meeting students' needs inside and outside of the classroom. According to U.S. Census data, nearly 44% of the community's households earn less than $24,999 annually and more than 90% of her district's students are eligible to receive free and reduced-priced meals. Superintendent Anderson teamed up with an area St. Louis food bank to open a school-based food panty who, with the help of eight volunteer students, distribute fresh vegetables, canned goods, multigrain bread and pasta to 200 Jennings' stuggling families every two weeks. Additional changes that have aided in increasing student performance include installing washers and dryers in schools, a free clothing store and home visits when a student misses more than two days of school consectively.
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Five Habits of Highly Effective Teachers
This link to the American Association of School Administrators' (AASA) School Administrator magazine features an article outlining habits of highly effective teachers and how administrators can use these habits as they interact with their teachers. The article was authored by Neil Bright a staff developer and supervisor of student teachers at the State University of New York, New Paltz.
This link to ASCD's Educational Leadership magazine explores the role that teacher leadership plays in highly effective teaching. The article was authored by Steven Farr is chief knowledge officer at Teach For America and author of Teaching As Leadership: The Highly Effective Teacher's Guide to Closing the Achievement Gap.
Response to Intervention (RTI) Overview, Considerations and Implementations
This PowerPoint presentation offers an overview of RTI as well as implementation steps. Additional presentations are located at the bottom of the web page.
Straight Talk on Teaching Quality: Six Game-Changing Ideas and What to Do About Them
This publication from the Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University offers six strategies for improving the quality of instruction.
Teacher Development and Advancement (2018)
This March 2018 Education Commission of the States policy snapshot asks "What Is the Issue and Why Does It Matter?", in regards to Teacher Development and Advancement. Though district and school leaders drive teacher professional development and advancement, state policymakers can create structures and incentives to support high-quality systems.
The Teaching as Leadership website is a companion to the book Teaching As Leadership: The Highly Effective Teacher's Guide to Closing the Achievement Gap, authored by Steven Farr chief knowledge officer at Teach For America. As noted at the website, "this website offers “how to” guides, annotated illustrations, common pitfalls, and tools to help all teachers embody the principles and strategies that distinguish highly effective teachers in low-income communities."
The Strongest Link: Supporting Highly Effective Teachers
This link to the Spring/Summer 2010 Education Northwest Magazine features a series of articles addressing highly effective teaching.
U.S. Department of Education Approves ESEA Flexibility Renewal for 7 States, D.C.
This U.S. Department of Education website announced that due to dramatic school improvement over the last six years, that Georgia, Hawaii, Kansas, Missouri, Nevada, New York, West Virginia and the District of Columbia have each received multiple years of continued flexibility from provisions of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), also known as No Child Left Behind (NCLB). The high school dropout rate is down, and graduation rates are higher than they have ever been,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. “As a result of our partnerships with state and district leaders to couple flexibility with reform, we are seeing remarkable strides and bold actions to improve student outcomes. States, districts, principals and teachers are showing incredible creativity in using different means to achieve the same goal - getting every student in America college- and career-ready.”
