Support Paths for Excellent Teachers

Strategy 1.3: Support all paths that bring excellent teachers and instruction to students.

StudentsFirst will insist that students have access to the most effective teachers possible by helping states remove barriers to bringing excellent instruction to all students. Currently, bureaucratic rules, codified in state law, around teacher certification, course credits, and mandatory "seat time" conspire to keep effective students from accessing the best possible instruction.

Students need the best possible instruction period. There is no one right way to become a teacher, but current state law in many places assumes there is only one pathway. Many people know they want to teach from an early age and follow a traditional path through college, earning their bachelors degree and obtaining a teaching certification or credential after some student teaching. Yet some people enter other professions first, perhaps practicing as an attorney or working as an engineer and coming to the teaching profession after other rich life experiences. Still others are not entirely sure they are ready to make a career decision right after college, but are drawn to the classroom and the rewards and challenges of teaching through alternative programs. Teach for America, for example, places recent college graduates in the classroom in hard-to-staff schools across the country after intensive training institutes. All of these pathways can produce highly effective teachers, a fact that has been proven and that can be observed in classrooms across America. The common thread among highly effective teachers, then, is not actually how they entered the profession, but how well their students perform.

Twenty years ago, there was a crisis in American schools; there were simply not enough teachers coming out of the state's traditional pathways to teaching (typically college plus at least a year-long certification program) to meet the demand of the growing school-age population. Some states took drastic measures and implemented "emergency credential" programs to get teachers into the classroom quickly. Some states even offered financial incentives. Not only did many people enter the teaching profession who otherwise may not have, but colleges and universities started to think outside the box and created new programs that would support hopeful teachers on alternate paths to the classroom. Today many quality pathway programs are producing teachers who are getting great results for kids. The best programs recruit candidates who are high academic achievers and have strong subject matter knowledge, then intensively support new teachers through mentoring and observation. States must do everything possible to make entering the teaching profession as desirable as any other highly valued profession. Similar to the argument supporting changes to compensation structure, state laws dictating who can teach must place a greater emphasis on the desired outputs than on the inputs.

Another emerging practice promising to grant greater student access to effective teachers involves developing digital learning environments. When done right, these practices bring excellent teachers to students in hard-to-serve areas by personalizing education so that students can learn at their own pace and style. By taking advantage of existing technology, students can access multiple modes of instruction and greater access to highly effective teachers in a broader spectrum of subject matter than may be available at their local school. As schools struggle to bring a diversity of curricular materials to meet the needs of all students, this model offers a clear solution that cannot be ignored.

In today's economy, adults must divorce themselves from outmoded notions of "the right way" to educate our students. Policy makers and school leadership must embrace emerging practices that will give students the best opportunities to succeed. Districts should be encouraged to explore innovative digital learning environments and to recruit teachers from any program able to prepare teachers to obtain great results with students.