The document discusses the need to raise expectations for teachers in order to improve student outcomes. It argues that traditional teacher certification programs are inadequate and deter talented candidates. States are exploring alternative approaches to attract, prepare, and compensate teachers. These include reshaping teacher education, expanding alternative certification programs, increasing accountability based on student results, and giving schools more flexibility over staffing and compensation. The document calls for federal policy to support state-led education reform through funding tied to performance targets rather than process requirements.

1. We Must Have Even Higher
Expectations For Teachers
Setting high standards for student learning is important, but if we are to attain
true excellence in our schools, we must have even higher expectations for
teachers. Traditional preparation and certification programs are failing to provide
sufficient quality and are deterring many talented candidates from entering the
classroom. To address these realities, states are exploring bold and creative ways
to attract, prepare and appropriately compensate talented professionals. Many
states now are faced with the dual challenges of improving teacher quality to
meet rising expectations for students while increasing teacher quantity to address
expected and existing shortages, particularly in hard-to staff subject areas and
schools.

2. Yet not all states have the same needs. Some are not producing enough teachers,
while others are preparing more than they need. There are shortages in particular
geographical areas, especially urban and rural, and surpluses in others. There are
shortages in particular subject areas, like mathematics and science, and surpluses
in others. Conventional approaches to improving the quality of teaching based on
narrow and burdensome certification requirements and input-driven measures,
such as seat time in education-theory courses, are not sufficient to the task. Nor is
nearly enough attention being paid to ensuring that every teacher possesses rich
and deep knowledge of the subjects that he or she will be imparting to students.
Some states are focusing on common-sense strategies to prepare and recruit
quality teachers. We are reshaping traditional teacher education and
professional development programs to make them more challenging and content-
rich, and expanding alternative certification programs to attract top liberal arts
graduates, mid-career changers and other talented professionals to the public
school classroom. This has attracted large numbers of qualified people who have
much to offer students. New programs have had great success in leading talented
individuals to the classroom. These individuals have brought a welcome energy
and sense of mission, and, more importantly, are improving student academic
performance.
States also are beginning to hold teachers more accountable for results in student
learning, the most important measure of teacher quality. Many states also are
working to give school leaders more flexibility and authority over staffing and
compensation decisions. Charter schools have led the way in these important
areas by freeing innovative school leaders and teachers to make their own
personnel decisions and holding them accountable for results.
Promising approaches like tenure reform, teacher testing, pay for performance
systems, alternative routes to certification and differential and bonus pay for
teachers in "high-need" subject areas also are being pursued at the state and local
levels. Importantly, this approach mirrors the flexibility-in-return-for-high-
expectations model while helping to support and expand successful innovation.
Federal policy should reflect this same approach, giving state and local leaders the
flexibility to pursue creative solutions that meet their unique needs. Rather than
dictating solutions, federal programs should encourage innovation through
initiatives aimed at increasing teacher quality and holding schools accountable to
parents and taxpayers for results.

3. Federal education policy needs to change to reflect these new realities. Reform
energies that have been unleashed in the states should be freed from federal
micromanagement and red tape. It is time for Washington to recognize the
primacy of the states in the provision of education, and support and expand the
reform energies of innovative state and local leaders.
Prominent leaders on both sides of the political aisle acknowledged that federal
education policy, though well-intentioned, has long over-emphasized process and
compliance while paying too little attention to the bottom line – improved
student achievement. We believe that freedom in exchange for accountability –
much as we see in the "charter school" strategy – should be the template for
federal education policy as a whole. What is needed today is a commitment to
trust state and local educators and school officials to verify the performance of
children. Simply put, states should receive wide-ranging freedom in the use of
their federal dollars in exchange for significantly greater accountability for results.
Borrowing from ideas supported on both sides of the aisle, the six performance-
based grants should be:
- Closing the Achievement Gap Between Disadvantaged and Advantaged Students
This relates chiefly to the goals set out for Title I. States would be given the
flexibility to target funds more effectively to children and reduce the time and
costs associated with endless accounting and compliance measures. Federal
dollars would become an entitlement that accompanies needy children to the
education providers of their choice – with states determining the boundaries of
those choices and the eligibility of providers.
- Helping Children Become Proficient in English
This grant would focus federal education policy on the goal of accelerating English
language learning for non-English speakers. States would set targets for moving
students with limited English proficiency into classes taught in English, as well as
specific goals for the proficiency that students are expected to achieve. Goals
would be met using whichever strategy is found to be most effective.
- Raising Teacher Quality

4. Federal professional development and other teacher-related programs would be
consolidated into a single grant. States could use funds to improve teacher quality
by exploring new ways of preparing, licensing, hiring and compensating teachers.
Because the best measure of teacher quality is student achievement, states
would be held accountable for producing gains in achievement rather than
increasing percentages of teachers with particular credentials.
- Expanding School Options
The most effective form of accountability is requiring schools to attract students
and the dollars that follow them. This grant would help states expand and widen
the range of available school options. It would expand existing efforts to provide
start-up funds for initiatives such as charter schools, and support other options
like magnet schools, and efforts to provide parents with more information about
school performance and the range of available school options. Increased choices
and better information for parents made available through this grant would
complement efforts to provide better options for disadvantaged students.
- Fostering Innovations
States would be given funds to pursue their own reform strategies. This grant
would allow states to target their own particular needs while trying new
approaches for boosting student achievement. Once they decide on reform
strategies to pursue, states would develop the performance objectives by which
they would be held accountable.
- Demanding Accountability
The performance grants described above give states unprecedented flexibility to
identify and attack the most pressing educational challenges they face. In return,
states would be required to demonstrate that they are meeting the performance
targets they set for each grant. The funds provided in this grant could be used to
create and maintain high academic standards, effective assessments and
workable accountability systems.
True accountability at any level requires compiling and reporting timely, accurate
and understandable information to the public on school performance. At the
state and local levels, we are pursuing innovative strategies to get clear and
meaningful information to the public that allows people to compare performance

5. from school to school, from district to district and from region to region. This
information is vital to parents who must make choices about children's education.
This valuable information also enables state and local education officials to better
identify strengths and develop focused strategies for assessing weaknesses.
Better information is also valuable at the macro-level so comparisons of
educational performance can be made from state to state and even country to
country to get a global perspective on our relative performance and
competitiveness. Collection and dissemination of this kind of information is the
core purpose of the federal role in education.
As state and federal education policy continues moving in the direction of
increased accountability, the availability of timely and reliable information will
become even more important. We urge Congress to move quickly on these
important issues. Programs to serve disadvantaged students need to be refocused
on improving academic achievement. The current federal education framework
must change in order to give reform-minded state and local leaders the tools they
need to accomplish their goals unencumbered by rules and regulations from
Washington. Most importantly, parents need to be empowered to direct the
course of their children's education by having more choices and better
information about school performance. We must change the way we think about
our schools. Somehow, those of us in education have lost our true focus. It seems
we have put the interests of maintaining systems over what is best for children.
We challenge educators and policymakers at all levels to rethink old assumptions
and renew their focus on what is working in public education: more options for
parents, autonomy for schools and single-minded commitment to what matters
most - improving student achievement.
Jeff C. Palmer is a teacher, success coach, trainer, Certified Master of Web
Copywriting and founder of https://Ebookschoice.com. Jeff is a prolific writer,
Senior Research Associate and Infopreneur having written many eBooks, articles
and special reports.
Source: https://ebookschoice.com/we-must-have-even-higher-expectations-for-
teachers/