Latest news with #NationalCouncilonTeacherQuality
Newsweek
7 days ago
- Business
- Newsweek
Republican-led State Setting an Example for Teaching Math
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. Alabama was the only state to earn a "Strong" rating its math education in a new report from the National Council on Teacher Quality released Tuesday. The state, which has historically leaned red, achieved a strong rating across five core policy areas. Why It Matters Historically, Republican-leaning poor states have suffered from reduced education funding and teacher gaps, leading to lower scores and educational quality. In previous years, Alabama ranked near the bottom of all states, so the new report shows significant progress in public school classrooms. University of Alabama graduates wait to hear President Donald Trump deliver remarks at Coleman Coliseum on May 1, 2025, in Tuscaloosa. University of Alabama graduates wait to hear President Donald Trump deliver remarks at Coleman Coliseum on May 1, 2025, in To Know Alabama earned a rating of "Strong" in the following five areas, according to the report: Set specific, detailed math standards for teacher preparation programs. Review teacher preparation programs to ensure they provide robust math instruction. Adopt a strong elementary math licensure test, and require all elementary candidates to pass it. Require districts to select high-quality math curricula aligned to state standards. Provide professional learning and ongoing support for teachers aligned with high-quality math curricula. When accounting for socioeconomic conditions, Alabama ranks 12th in the nation, according to the National Council on Teacher Quality, after placing 32nd last year. "Without a doubt, Alabama's leadership played a major role in putting the state on top. State Superintendent Dr. Mackey set a bold vision for Alabama, set high-quality, Alabama-specific math standards, and worked with legislative champions to take a comprehensive approach," Heather Peske, president of the National Council on Teacher Quality, told Newsweek. Higher math scores are generally linked to college opportunities and more lucrative careers. Despite this, one in four fourth-graders nationally cannot do math at a basic level, the report found. Last week, Alabama Governor Kay Ivey announced that the state's Pre-K through 3rd Grade Integrated Approach to Early Learning (P-3) would be implemented in 55 new classrooms. That means classrooms will get more funding, potentially leading to higher achievement. Earlier this year, Alabama's fourth-graders experienced the largest average score increase from 2019 to 2024. The state's ranking grew from 40th two years ago to 32nd despite being last in the nation in 2019, according to Alabama Daily News. Nationwide, only 12 states and the District of Columbia used a "strong" or "acceptable" math licensure test and required all elementary teachers to pass it. The state were: Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Kansas, Kentucky, Nevada, New York, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont and Wyoming. According to the Programme for International Student Assessment, the U.S. ranked 34th in math among 78 participating countries in 2022. What People Are Saying Alabama Governor Kay Ivey, in a statement: "Each year, Alabama's P-3 approach continues to build momentum and grow to provide a smooth transition from pre-K to third grade. Strong students lead to a strong Alabama, and these learning efforts will ensure we continue to strengthen our schools and provide the best education for all students." Heather Peske, president of the National Council on Teacher Quality, told Newsweek: "Strong math skills add up to better reading scores, stronger college readiness, and eventually higher earnings for students. If states want their students to succeed, they can take a page out of Alabama's playbook for better preparing and supporting our elementary teachers in math instruction." Alabama State Superintendent of Education Dr. Eric Mackey, in a statement: "You can't improve math outcomes by focusing on just one piece. Real progress happens when your standards, assessments, instructional materials, coaching, and teacher preparation all point in the same direction. Alignment isn't the finish line—it's the starting point." What Happens Next On a larger scale, Alabama may lead as an example for how other states can improve their public schools. "Empowering teachers with the knowledge and skills to teach math effectively is essential for improving life outcomes for all children," Peske said. "If we want students to succeed, we need to invest in better preparation and support for great math instruction."
Yahoo
03-06-2025
- 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.
New York Post
16-05-2025
- Politics
- New York Post
NYC should look to the Mississippi Miracle to learn how to teach reading
If you're a parent of a young reader, would you rather start off in Manhattan or Mississippi? The answer may surprise you. Today, fourth-grade students in Mississippi read almost a full school year ahead of their peers in New York City, according to national test scores. Advertisement It wasn't always this way. In the early 2000s, Mississippi students trailed New York City by half a year. Now students in the Magnolia State read above the national average. Advertisement Mississippi isn't alone: Other high-poverty Southern states have made major gains. These dynamics are part of a post-pandemic shift of red states overtaking blue ones academically. Here's another way of understanding these data: About 31,000 New York City fourth-graders scored at the Below Basic level last year. Advertisement These students struggle to interpret the main character's actions in 'The Tale of Desperaux,' a classic story of a mouse on a quest to rescue a beautiful princess. In this summer's primary election, New Yorkers will effectively choose their next mayor, and the stakes couldn't be higher for Gotham's aspiring readers. Here are three things that the city's next mayor should learn from Mississippi and other Southern states about improving literacy. A general view of school children pictured leaving school on the last day of school before summer vacation on June 18, 2024. Christopher Sadowski Advertisement First, be honest and support struggling readers. While 90% of New York parents think their child reads at or above grade level, only 45% actually do. Mississippi doesn't have this kind of honesty gap. The state sends written notice to parents when children are at risk of being held back and requires schools to create Individualized Reading Plans. These plans include targeted interventions and progress monitoring. Schools also offer summer reading camps with small-group support. Line chart shows reading levels of fourth graders in Mississippi, US, and New York from 2003 to 2024. Mike Guillen/NY Post Design Second, empower educators. Through no fault of their own, teachers around the United States are not well-trained in how to teach reading. Of the 16 teacher-prep programs in New York City, 12 earn a D or F from the latest National Council on Teacher Quality reviews. Advertisement After passing a comprehensive literacy bill in 2013, Mississippi funded a two-year course in evidence-based reading methods for all elementary teachers. The state teachers' association supported the change. NYC could offer salary bonuses for completely similar training. Skeptical of adopting a 'red state' reform? Advertisement Research shows that intensive literacy coaching improved outcomes at scale in California. These investments deliver more bang for the buck than just increasing spending. Under the current mayor, the NYC Reads initiative ended Columbia Teachers College's 'balanced literacy' program, which had been the main approach in city schools for 30 years, and replaced it with three evidence-based programs. Advertisement Two — EL Education and Wit & Wisdom — emphasize nonfiction and reading whole novels, a rarity in an age of rampant screen time. While teachers have been offered some professional learning opportunities, implementation has been uneven. Teachers need more time and support to unlearn what they thought for three decades was the right approach for kids. In the old Teachers College model, fourth-graders reading at a second-grade level were given easy, 'just right' books. Advertisement But research shows this doesn't build vocabulary or background knowledge. As Tim Shanahan of the University of Illinois-Chicago wrote, 'If students are working with texts that they can already read quite well . . . there is little opportunity for learning.' The new curriculum rightly demands grade-level texts, but learning new ways to support students takes time. As Robert Pondiscio wrote in these pages last month, 'If we're serious about raising literacy rates, we need to sustain this effort across years, mayors and chancellors.' Finally, set difficult but achievable goals. In 2013, Mississippi's governor set a clear reading goal — one his successor continues to prioritize. No other governor or mayor does this. Former US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan recently noted, 'There are no education goals for the country.' With 70% of NYC jobs expected to require some college, the next mayor could set a 2% to 3% annual literacy-growth goal. Over a decade, that would give students a real shot at success. Mississippi's growth has been called a miracle, but that term implies supernatural causes. The state's gains have been made by leaders and teachers implementing a well-designed strategy for a decade. They also know much work remains to see the same rate of growth in eighth-grade scores. New Yorkers take pride in having the best of everything — and often, they do have the best. But when it comes to teaching reading, it's time for humility, and time to learn from those who are doing better. David Scarlett Wakelyn is a former New York Deputy Secretary for Education and a consultant at Upswing Labs. Michael Hartney is the Bruni Family Fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution and an associate professor of political science at Boston College.
Yahoo
10-04-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Gallup Poll: Half of School Leaders Say Finding a Good Math Teacher is Tough
As the nation's school children struggle to make gains in mathematics — and continue to fall short of pre-pandemic achievement levels — a new Gallup poll reveals a related challenge: schools' difficulty in hiring well-qualified math teachers. Nearly half of 1,471 education leaders who responded to the analytics company's December query reported that the task was 'very challenging' and far worse than finding strong English language or social studies applicants. 'The pool of certified math teachers is small, and the demand is high, particularly for candidates who are ready to support student learning from day one,' said Nicole Paxton, assistant principal and athletic director of Mountain Vista Community School in Colorado Springs. 'In our district, we've experienced a growing number of math openings with only a handful of candidates to consider — many of whom are international applicants requiring sponsorship or visas.' Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter Another new study lends insight into a possible reason why: Only 1 in 8 elementary teacher preparation programs nationwide devote adequate time to teaching fundamental math content topics, including numbers and operations, algebraic thinking, geometry and measurement — plus data analysis and probability. The National Council on Teacher Quality, which released the teacher preparation study April 8, found the average undergraduate program dedicates 85 hours of instructional time to foundational math content knowledge — 20 hours short of what the organization recommends. Graduate programs devote even less time to the topic — 14 hours total — with only 5% meeting or approaching the minimum recommendation of 150 hours. The council said 22% of undergraduate programs earned an 'F' for their performance in this area: More than 80% of graduate level programs also earned this failing grade. 'Teachers need to know how to do more than just follow the steps in math to get the right answer,' Heather Peske, the organization's president, said in a statement. 'They need to know why those steps work. It's like the difference between a basketball player and a coach. The player can learn their role and follow directions, but the coach needs to understand the bigger picture, the why behind every move.' Michael Rubin, principal of Uxbridge High School in Massachusetts, roughly 60 miles southwest of Boston, said finding high-quality teachers of any subject is difficult, particularly in math and science. 'When we deal with even more advanced levels of mathematics, with highly specialized content, the number of educators is even more limited,' he said. 'My father was a math teacher for 39 years, and not a year has gone by since he retired nine years ago where a principal has not reached out and asked him if he is willing or able to come in to teach, tutor or substitute.' Indeed, Gallup poll responders said the problem was even more acute in later grades where the math curriculum gets harder: 64% of principals said this was 'very challenging' at the high school level versus 56% at the middle school and 23% at the elementary level. The struggle can also be seen in lower-income and rural communities, like Sheridan County School District #3 in Clearmont, Wyoming, which enrolls just 83 students K-12. Chase Christensen, who serves as both superintendent and district principal, said staff are frequently asked to take on other roles. Next fall, he said, a physical education teacher will lead advanced mathematics classes — they will focus on pre-algebra, geometry, statistics and probability — at the middle school level while he works toward earning his certification in that subject. Christensen said he's grateful for his staff's' flexibility. 'When we all sit down and take a hard look at what the needs of the school are, people just step up and we figure out how it is going to work,' he said. Stephanie Marken, a senior partner at Gallup leading its U.S. custom research division, said schools' trouble finding quality math instructors is particularly concerning because these teachers play a pivotal role in making this often tough subject palatable. 'If you have a highly engaged teacher who's really committed and qualified in that subject area, we know that it brings math education to life in a way that you just can't do otherwise,' Marken said. Math anxiety, the fear that students — and their teachers — share about this subject further harms their opportunity and ability to succeed in it. 'We know that a lot of students have negative emotions surrounding math and that there's a lot of pressure that math places upon students,' Marken said. 'We know that the teacher makes a big difference in breaking down math and making it feel really relevant and achievable.' Paxton, of Colorado Springs, said her district employs several strategies to manage the problem. It supports teachers on visas and those coming from alternative certification pathways through monthly meetings that focus on best practices, classroom management and cultural assimilation. It also works with Teach for America, which has, for three decades, recruited college graduates to teach in high-need schools for two years. Plus, it's built a solid relationship with its local university's teacher training program and has launched a 'grow your own' pipeline to support teacher aides in earning their bachelor's degrees, completing internships in the district and ultimately becoming licensed teachers there. 'These layered supports and creative recruitment efforts are our response to a national challenge,' Paxton said. Gallup's Math Matters Study went beyond schools' issues with hiring to families' experience on campus: While roughly a third of the 808 parents who responded said their children receive some math tutoring, only 13% received such help more than weekly. Gallup notes that prior research shows high-quality math tutoring can improve achievement by an additional three to 15 months of learning, 'but the most impactful tutoring programs must include frequent sessions — three times a week or more.' Related Roughly a third of parents said they would enroll their child in tutoring if it was available or more accessible. Parents also reported a lack of communication about the subject on the part of educators: One in six said they 'never' hear from their child's school about the goals for their child's math learning or what their student is learning in math class. The survey showed, too, a lack of understanding — and consensus — among educators about what constitutes high-quality instructional materials, curriculum aligned to college- and career-ready standards: 37% of all education leaders said they were 'not at all familiar' with or 'not very familiar with' the concept. Related Sixty-eight percent of school superintendents and 46% of school principals said their building or district had no official definition of the term. But when supplied with a definition by Gallup, which identified high-quality instructional materials as those 'which are standards-aligned and use evidence-based practices for the content area,' 69% said most or all of their math curriculum qualified. Professional development proved an added challenge. Thirty-nine percent of educators surveyed rated their own school's math-related professional development as 'fair' or 'poor.' This statistic was worse at the high school level where 6% said it was poor and 39% said it was fair. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation sponsored the Math Matters Study and provides financial support to The 74.
