August 19, 2009
Teachers matter most when it comes to student achievement—this is a key assumption of the work of the foundation and empowering effective teachers is a central focus of our college-ready education strategy.
To ensure that all students graduate from high school prepared to succeed in and complete college, school systems must produce gains in student achievement and attainment that defy the incremental improvement of recent years. Fulfilling this goal will require shifts in beliefs, policies, and actions that ultimately empower a school system’s single largest asset—its corps of teachers—to deliver the highest quality instruction in every school, in every classroom, and to every student. With teachers at the heart of this effort, school systems will need to work across stakeholders so that demonstrations of teacher effectiveness become a key criteria in the development of policies and implementation of practices that support student achievement. We believe that school systems that persist in undertaking this wholeheartedly can achieve double-digit annual gains in student achievement and unprecedented improvements in college-ready graduation rates.
A major strand of work in effective teaching will be partnerships in several sites around the country to dramatically alter the landscape of teacher effectiveness – from recruitment to retention to how teachers are developed and supported. Several months ago, the foundation issued a request for proposals to improve effective teaching for consideration for significant foundation investment. Nine districts and one coalition of charter management organizations responded to the invitation and submitted comprehensive plans that benefited from months of collaboration, discussion and technical assistance from the foundation and a variety of partners.
The foundation has now invited four of these districts—Hillsborough County, Fla., Memphis, Tenn., Omaha, Neb., Pittsburgh, Pa., and the coalition of charter school networks from Los Angeles—to advance to the next stage of our process and submit a memorandum of understanding (MOU). This MOU will affirm the collective commitment of the districts (superintendent, board and union leadership) and their communities to the proposed multi-year plan for effective teaching and “intensive partnership” grants currently under consideration for significant foundation investment.
Additionally, the foundation is considering five other districts—Atlanta, Ga., Denver, Colo., Palm Beach County, Fla., Prince George’s County, Md., and Tulsa, Okla.—for smaller “accelerator partnership” grants to fund portions of their effective teaching plans.
Final decisions regarding grants to both the intensive partnership and accelerator partnership sites will be made and announced later this fall.
Each and every district that has participated over the past several months should be recognized as one of the leaders in the country on one of the most important educational issues of our time.