WASHINGTON >> California ranks below 31 other public-school systems and earns just a D-plus in ensuring teacher quality, according to a new report aimed at spurring states to improve teacher preparation.
The Washington, D. C.- based National Council on Teacher Quality’s 2017 State Teacher Policy Yearbook evaluated and graded states on teacher preparation, evaluation, compensation and other factors that contribute to successful teaching. Since its last survey in 2015, the nonprofit, nonpartisan council found that California and most states stagnated in their progress.
“States’ teacher policies have an enormous impact on the quality of education in the state,” said Elizabeth Ross, the council’s managing director of state policy in a statement on the report’s findings.
In an emailed response Tuesday, California Board of Edu cation President Michael Kirst called the organization that produced the report “an advocacy group with its own arbitrary criteria for state grades.”
“There are other interstate organizations that accredit teachers and university preparation programs,” Kirst said, “and they have different criteria than NCTQ.”
California has resisted efforts to regulate teacher education and to tie teacher evaluations to students’ learning. The state also hasn’t defined what goes into good teaching or teacher training. When the Obama administration two years ago proposed grading credential programs, universities that offer credentialing objected, drawing reformers’ ire.
“The inability of California to name what an effective teacher is creates the conditions where we go round and round,” Tony Smith, former superintendent in Oakland, Emeryville and San Francisco and a regulation backer, said at the time. “One of the key components of effectiveness is that a child makes a year’s growth in a year’s time.”
Representatives of state teachers unions did not respond Tuesday to requests for comment on the report, released Dec. 14.
The council looked at nine policy areas in reviewing the 50 states and the District of Columbia. California earned an F in hiring, in teacher and principal evaluation and in retention of effective teachers. The Golden State failed to meet the council’s goal of using student growth to measure teacher effectiveness, or of maintaining data needed for teacher evaluation.
The state also did not meet similar goals for ensuring the effectiveness of school principals.
California has consistently earned a D-plus since the council’s first survey in 2009, although it dropped to a D in 2015. In a 2014 council survey of just teacher credential programs, the council rated California universities a D-plus.
No states earned an A overall. Eight earned Bs, and top scorers Florida and Louisiana each earned a B-plus. Two states— Montana and South Dakota — earned Fs. While California’s scores are not impressive, 10 states performed in the same range as California, and nine states earned a lower grade.
But all is not terrible. California earned a B, its highest mark, in teacher compensation — although absolute salary levels do not reflect the high cost of living in pricey areas like the San Francisco Bay Area. The council praised the state school districts’ practice of offering different pay scales for high-need schools and for teaching particular subjects.
The yearbook also flagged a standout practice in preparing teacher candidates to teaching reading to elementary, secondary and special-education students.
California earned the most needs-to-improve marks in the area of teacher and principal evaluation. Specifically, the council recommended that the state include evidence of student growth in teacher evaluations, require student surveys be part of teacher evaluations and ensure that teacher evaluators are trained and certified.
