The regulations governing Race to The Top state eligibility requirements reward close scrutiny. One paragraph, which discusses state eligibility requirements for Race to the To Top funds ($4.35 billion), is worth noting. The paragraph provides as follows:
II. A. Eligibility Requirements
" ...Second, we propose that to be eligible under this program, a State must not have any legal, statutory, or regulatory barriers to linking student achievement or student growth data to teachers for the purpose of teacher and principal evaluation. Research indicates that teacher quality is a critical contributor to student learning and that there is dramatic variation in teacher quality. Yet it is difficult to predict teacher quality based on the qualifications that teachers bring to the job. Indeed, measures such as certification, master's degreees, and years of teaching experience have limited predictive power on this point. (Emphasis mine)" Footnote to studies by Thomas Kane, professor, Harvard Graduate School of Education.
Thomas Kane's research finds that teacher certification "matters little" for student achievement. His studies show that student learning is closely correlated to a teacher's academic skills, not to holding a teaching credential. See "Eight Practical Ways to Reverse the Decline of Public Schools," on pages 9-10.
While the U.S. Department of Education now officially endorses Thomas Kane's research, Washington's legislators recently ignored it. The education reform process in Washington has given regulators, the chief defenders of traditional teacher certification, the power to control efforts to raise teacher quality. HB 2261, the big ed reform bill passed in the last legislative session, places the agency regulating teaching credentials, the Professional Educator Standards Board, (PESB) in charge of adopting performance standards for effective teaching.
Regulating teacher quality through teacher credential requirements has simply not worked to raise student achievement. Last week's disappointing WASL results should reinvigorate genuine efforts to raise teacher quality. The way to improve teaching quality is to 1) Remove current regulatory barriers to highly qualified individuals with bachelor's degrees who wish to teach, and 2) Allow Washington's principals the tools they need to assemble a team of highly effective teachers for every classroom and reward them for raising student performance.
