EAST LANSING, Mich. — The United States does not have enough effective teachers – a problem that could be corrected partly by improving working conditions at low-income schools and determining the best forms of teacher recruitment, according to a national panel of experts led by a Michigan State University scholar.
The group, chaired by MSU's Suzanne Wilson, outlined ways to improve teacher quality today at a Washington, D.C., forum that aimed to provide President-elect Barack Obama and the incoming Congress a guide for school reform. Slated to speak at the National Academy of Education forum was Stanford University's Linda Darling-Hammond, an adviser to Obama.
Wilson's panel was one of six focusing on different areas of educational improvement. She and other speakers presented a portion of their research-based findings; the complete reports will be released early next year.
The other areas for improvement are equity and excellence in American education; reading and literacy; science and math education; standards, assessments and accountability; and time for learning.
William Schmidt served on the panel focusing on standards, assessments and accountability, while Robert Floden served on the steering committee for the entire initiative. Both Schmidt and Floden are University Distinguished Professors at MSU.
Wilson, professor and chairperson of the Department of Teacher Education in MSU's top-ranked College of Education, said teacher turnover is "alarmingly high" at K-12 schools with high poverty rates. To address the problem, she said state and federal governments must not only offer salary incentives for successful teachers but also create better working conditions such as strong leadership by principals and better mentoring and professional development.
"We know how to get new teachers with the potential talent into these schools, but we can't keep them there," Wilson said.
When it comes to recruitment, Wilson said the United States has a system of teacher preparation that includes multiple pathways into the profession. That includes the traditional method of earning teacher certification through a college or university and alternative methods such as Teach for America in which certification is acquired through two years of on-the-job teaching.
Wilson's panel recommends that school districts, states and the federal government continue to experiment with a variety of teacher recruitment programs, but also collect data to improve programs that are promising and eliminate those that are not.
"What we don't know is which of these recruitment and retention pathways gives us the best outcome," Wilson said.
Wilson's group also studied measures of good teaching, effective professional development and early career support. Those findings will be released in early 2009.
MSU's graduate programs in both elementary and secondary education have ranked No. 1 in the nation for 14 years in a row, according to U.S. News & World Report.
The National Academy of Education initiative is supported through a grant from Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors in conjunction with its sponsorship of Strong American Schools, a nonpartisan campaign supported by The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Marc Lampkin, executive director of Strong American Schools, said the project is "guided by the best research in the field" and "will give the president-elect and the 111th Congress a guide for much-needed school reform."