Latest news with #NCTQ
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Ohio rated 'weak' on math elementary level policy instruction by new report
Ohio school children in a classroom. (Photo by Morgan Trau.) Ohio is 'weak' on policies to strengthen elementary teachers' math instruction, according to a new report by the National Council on Teacher Quality. Ohio is one of 25 states that received a 'weak' rating by the NCTQ report that was released Tuesday. Only Alabama received a strong rating and seven states earned an unacceptable rating — Arizona, Hawaii, Maine, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, and New Hampshire, according to the report. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX The states earned their ratings based on these five policies — Set specific, detailed math standards for teacher preparation programs. Review teacher preparation programs to ensure they are providing robust math instruction. Adopt a strong elementary math licensure test. Require districts to select high-quality math curricula and support skillful implementation. Provide professional learning and ongoing support for teachers to sustain effective math instruction. A weak rating means a state has some of those policies in place, but not all. Ohio was strong in teacher preparation programs and received a moderate ranking in having a strong elementary math licensure program, according to the report. 'Ohio's made significant investments in professional learning for teachers in reading, but much fewer investments in financially supporting professional learning in math instruction,' said NCTQ President Heather Peske. This past school year was the first year Ohio school districts were required to teach the science of reading curriculum, which is based on decades of research that shows how the human brain learns to read and incorporates phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. Some of the Ohio's 2023 two-year budget went toward the science of reading — $86 million for educator professional development, $64 million for curriculum and instructional materials, and $18 million for literacy coaches. 'You can do two things at once,' Peske said. 'It's really important to kids that they have strong reading instruction and strong math instruction, so it's high time that Ohio focused on improving math instruction, especially at the elementary level.' Student math scores predict future earnings better than reading scores, Peske said. 'Strong math skills add up to better reading scores, stronger college readiness, and eventually even higher earnings for students,' she said. Ohio math scores are below pre-pandemic levels, according to the Nation's 2024 Report Card. Approximately 235,000 fourth-graders from 6,100 schools and 230,000 eighth-graders from 5,400 schools participated in the 2024 math and reading assessments between January and March of last year. In Ohio, the average fourth-grade math score was 239, two points higher than the national average and one point higher than the state's fourth grade math scores in 2022. The scale for NAEP scores is 0-500. The state's average eighth-grade math score was 279, seven points higher than the national average and three points higher than the state's 2022 test. 'If we want to improve student math outcomes, we really need to better prepare and support elementary teachers in their math instruction,' Peske said. Ohio lawmakers are paying attention to student math scores. Ohio Senate Bill 19 would require school districts or individual schools to come up with a math achievement improvement plan if they don't have at least 52% of students receive a proficient score in math comprehension. The bill has had three hearings so far in the Senate Education Committee. Follow Capital Journal Reporter Megan Henry on Bluesky. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
02-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
In Dozens of Districts, Teachers Can't Afford to Live Near Their Schools
In a recent analysis, Katherine Bowser of the National Council on Teacher Quality finds that teachers are increasingly being priced out of housing in their communities. She notes that, between 2019 and 2024, the percentage growth in home prices and the cost of renting a one-bedroom apartment have significantly outpaced increases in both inflation and teacher salaries. In short, teachers face, 'a widening gap between income and housing affordability,' according to NCTQ President Heather Peske. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development defines 'affordable' as 'paying no more than 30% of gross income for housing costs, including utilities.' NCTQ had previously looked at a select sample of 69 large urban districts and found 18 where beginning teacher salaries met the definition for 'unaffordable' as of 2019. By 2024, that number had risen to 39, or about half the sample. In 10 of those districts, the rent for a one-bedroom apartment cost 40% of a beginning teacher's salary. In Boston, for example, it would eat up nearly 43%. Bowser notes that the picture today is even grimmer when looking at a teacher's prospects for purchasing a home. Using some (ambitious) estimates about how much an educator could save toward a down payment on a mortgage and comparing it with local real estate prices, Bowser finds that teachers would struggle to purchase a home in 54 out of 56 sample districts. These are extreme numbers. But who or what is to blame? And what can be done? Related One potential solution starts with a simple premise. If teachers can't find affordable housing, school districts could partner with developers to build apartments and become landlords to their own employees. This has been a particular focus in California, where state Superintendent of Public Education Tony Thurmond and a coalition of legislators and developers are encouraging districts to repurpose empty buildings and unused land to address housing needs. That may seem like a good idea at first blush, but previous efforts have been plagued by delays and rules that prevent 'low-income' housing subsidies from going to people who are not truly low-income. In other words, teachers often make too much to qualify for extra financial assistance. The idea that districts can solve teacher housing issues is also complicated by the fact that educators are far from the only group of workers who struggle to make ends meet in high-cost urban areas. Indeed, recent studies have found that high housing costs have led to lower mobility and fewer opportunities for people to climb the economic ladder. If police officers, social workers, janitors and cleaners, bus drivers, food service workers and many other types of low- and moderate-income employees are all being priced out of many American cities, there's only so much a school board can do. In that case, the 'teacher' housing problem is largely a generic, community-wide affordability problem that will be solved only by building more housing units. But even if individual school boards cannot solve this big, societal trend, education policymakers are not helping. In fact, their choices have made the housing affordability problem worse. How? By not turning rising revenues into higher salaries, they've chosen to prioritize a larger education workforce over a better-paid one. In turn, that makes it harder for teachers and other school employees to afford housing in the places where they work. Related As I noted in a recent project for The 74, school spending is keeping up with or even outpacing inflation in many parts of the country, but those investments are not translating into higher compensation for district employees. If those salaries had merely kept up with total education spending, they would be 34% higher. At the national level, that would have worked out to a $22,000 raise for the average school employee. In Portland, Oregon, for example, NCTQ's Bowser finds that it would take 41% of a beginning teacher's salary to rent a one-bedroom apartment. But that's not for lack of investments in the district. As we found in our report, Portland's revenues rose 54% from 2002 to 2022 in inflation-adjusted, per-pupil terms. (That is, the district revenues increased much faster than inflation.) And yet, the average salary paid to Portland school employees fell by 8%. Portland, like many parts of the country, did not turn budget increases into salary gains for its workers. These trends have continued in recent years. While Portland housing prices surged over the last five years, the district lost 10% of its student enrollment. At the same time, it added the equivalent of 445 full-time employees to its payroll (an 8% increase). In other words, instead of leaning into the housing problem and trying to pay its existing workers higher salaries, the Portland school district actually made the city's housing problems just a bit worse by hiring more, lower-paid workers.I don't want to just pick on Portland here. As we showed in our project last month, 90% of districts are making these types of choices. But they effectively mean that school district leaders in some of the biggest, most expensive places to live are making budgetary decisions that add to the housing difficulties in their communities.
Yahoo
03-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
California, Texas and D.C. Are Tops in Teacher Diversity, Report Finds
California, Texas and Washington, D.C., lead the nation in teacher diversity, according to a recent report by the National Council on Teacher Quality. While the nation's college-educated workforce overall is diversifying more quickly than the teaching pool, the NCTQ found that California, Texas, and Washington, D.C., are following the opposite trajectory. But the nonprofit questions some of the methods used to increase diversity, such as alternative pathways or lower standards for teacher certification, said Ron Noble, the council's chief of teacher preparation. 'We found that places like Texas are achieving [more teacher diversity], but with policies that have us concerned about the long-term health of the teacher pipeline,' Noble said. 'California and Washington, D.C., offer potential bright spots that might not have that same pitfall.' Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter Related NCTQ's report follows its December launch of a teacher diversity dashboard that tracks the racial makeup of U.S. educator corps from 2014 to 2022. Noble said the organization is focusing on educator workforce diversity because employing teachers of color improves academic, social, emotional and behavior outcomes for students. 'We really want states to be deliberate and intentional in — and careful how they go about — achieving the goal of a diverse workforce,' Noble said. Teachers from historically disadvantaged groups in the U.S. make up nearly 23% of working-age adults with degrees but 21% of the teacher workforce, according to the dashboard. In Texas, 35% of college-educated adults are from historically disadvantaged groups, compared with 43% of teachers. But researchers found that behind the high diversity number were flawed alternative certification programs and uncertified teachers — both of which became more common with educator shortages during the pandemic. In the 2021-22 school year, 51% of Texas teachers completed alternative certification programs, compared with an average of 19% in other states, according to NCTQ. Alternative pathways are more diverse than traditional programs: One study found that Black Texas teachers were more than three times as likely to pursue alternative certification than a more common route like a bachelor's degree. Related Noble said researchers found that the majority of alternative programs in Texas are fully online and that graduates can become teachers with little to no classroom experience. A 2024 Texas Tech University study found that online alternative pathways have a higher turnover rate than other teacher preparation programs. 'They are thrown right into a high-stakes environment,' he said. 'It's not surprising that there are people leaving the profession.' The number of uncertified teachers is also growing in Texas classrooms. Last year, state data reported that 34% of newly hired teachers in Texas were uncertified. The NCTQ report says racial demographics of uncertified teachers aren't tracked, making it hard for policymakers to understand the impact on the future diversity of the educator workforce. In California, nearly 33% of the teachers come from historically disadvantaged groups, compared with 27% of college-educated adults. The NCTQ report says California's effort to prioritize teacher diversity, invest in educator training and track industry data are reasons why diversity rates are higher than the norm. The state has invested more than $1 billion in recent years to strengthen the teacher workforce. Advocates have built a diversity road map and plan to launch a teacher training and retention dashboard later this year to track demographic and employment data. NCTQ said in its report that California has lowered standards for teacher candidates to enter the profession. A bill that passed in June allows for a bachelor's degree in any subject to be the sole qualifier for admission into most teacher preparation programs. NCTQ also cited Washington, D.C., for its high diversity rates, though its trendlines are not on the same trajectory as California's and Texas's. In 2022, 69% of educators came from historically disadvantaged groups, a drop from 77% in 2020. Adults with college degrees from these groups were reported at 35% in 2022. 'It would be easy to explain away D.C.'s teacher diversity by pointing out that it is a city, not a state, and cities are typically more diverse than states,' the report says. 'However, comparing D.C.'s teacher and student demographics to those in other large cities in the United States suggests D.C.'s approach to diversifying the teacher workforce is yielding results.' The NCTQ report shows that the teacher workforce in Washington, D.C., more closely mirrored its student population than those of other districts of similar size and student demographics. Related About 87% of the district's student population are people of color, as is 74% of the teacher workforce. Researchers found that Atlanta Public Schools was the only demographically similar district that had a smaller student-to-teacher diversity gap. The report credits consistent prioritization of educator diversity and innovative teacher preparation pathways for the high percentages in Washington, D.C. The region established 'Grow Your Own' preparation programs with university partners and has implemented a centralized hiring process that yields more diverse candidates.
Yahoo
03-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
California, Texas and D.C. Are Tops in Teacher Diversity, Report Finds
California, Texas and Washington, D.C., lead the nation in teacher diversity, according to a recent report by the National Council on Teacher Quality. While the nation's college-educated workforce overall is diversifying more quickly than the teaching pool, the NCTQ found that California, Texas, and Washington, D.C., are following the opposite trajectory. But the nonprofit questions some of the methods used to increase diversity, such as alternative pathways or lower standards for teacher certification, said Ron Noble, the council's chief of teacher preparation. 'We found that places like Texas are achieving [more teacher diversity], but with policies that have us concerned about the long-term health of the teacher pipeline,' Noble said. 'California and Washington, D.C., offer potential bright spots that might not have that same pitfall.' Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter Related NCTQ's report follows its December launch of a teacher diversity dashboard that tracks the racial makeup of U.S. educator corps from 2014 to 2022. Noble said the organization is focusing on educator workforce diversity because employing teachers of color improves academic, social, emotional and behavior outcomes for students. 'We really want states to be deliberate and intentional in — and careful how they go about — achieving the goal of a diverse workforce,' Noble said. Teachers from historically disadvantaged groups in the U.S. make up nearly 23% of working-age adults with degrees but 21% of the teacher workforce, according to the dashboard. In Texas, 35% of college-educated adults are from historically disadvantaged groups, compared with 43% of teachers. But researchers found that behind the high diversity number were flawed alternative certification programs and uncertified teachers — both of which became more common with educator shortages during the pandemic. In the 2021-22 school year, 51% of Texas teachers completed alternative certification programs, compared with an average of 19% in other states, according to NCTQ. Alternative pathways are more diverse than traditional programs: One study found that Black Texas teachers were more than three times as likely to pursue alternative certification than a more common route like a bachelor's degree. Related Noble said researchers found that the majority of alternative programs in Texas are fully online and that graduates can become teachers with little to no classroom experience. A 2024 Texas Tech University study found that online alternative pathways have a higher turnover rate than other teacher preparation programs. 'They are thrown right into a high-stakes environment,' he said. 'It's not surprising that there are people leaving the profession.' The number of uncertified teachers is also growing in Texas classrooms. Last year, state data reported that 34% of newly hired teachers in Texas were uncertified. The NCTQ report says racial demographics of uncertified teachers aren't tracked, making it hard for policymakers to understand the impact on the future diversity of the educator workforce. In California, nearly 33% of the teachers come from historically disadvantaged groups, compared with 27% of college-educated adults. The NCTQ report says California's effort to prioritize teacher diversity, invest in educator training and track industry data are reasons why diversity rates are higher than the norm. The state has invested more than $1 billion in recent years to strengthen the teacher workforce. Advocates have built a diversity road map and plan to launch a teacher training and retention dashboard later this year to track demographic and employment data. NCTQ said in its report that California has lowered standards for teacher candidates to enter the profession. A bill that passed in June allows for a bachelor's degree in any subject to be the sole qualifier for admission into most teacher preparation programs. NCTQ also cited Washington, D.C., for its high diversity rates, though its trendlines are not on the same trajectory as California's and Texas's. In 2022, 69% of educators came from historically disadvantaged groups, a drop from 77% in 2020. Adults with college degrees from these groups were reported at 35% in 2022. 'It would be easy to explain away D.C.'s teacher diversity by pointing out that it is a city, not a state, and cities are typically more diverse than states,' the report says. 'However, comparing D.C.'s teacher and student demographics to those in other large cities in the United States suggests D.C.'s approach to diversifying the teacher workforce is yielding results.' The NCTQ report shows that the teacher workforce in Washington, D.C., more closely mirrored its student population than those of other districts of similar size and student demographics. Related About 87% of the district's student population are people of color, as is 74% of the teacher workforce. Researchers found that Atlanta Public Schools was the only demographically similar district that had a smaller student-to-teacher diversity gap. The report credits consistent prioritization of educator diversity and innovative teacher preparation pathways for the high percentages in Washington, D.C. The region established 'Grow Your Own' preparation programs with university partners and has implemented a centralized hiring process that yields more diverse candidates.
