The Colorado Department of Education

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Related Research

This section of the Resource Bank is designed to give you access to web resources on topics related to Educator Effectiveness.

Collective Bargaining

Invisible Ink in Collective Bargaining: Why Key Issues Are Not Addressed
Source/Author: The National Council on Teacher Quality

As a number of big school districts around the country such as San Diego, Broward County, and Philadelphia hammer out new teacher contracts over the next few months, both sides will no doubt bring laundry lists of "must haves" to the bargaining table. The common assumption is that the important action happens when district administrators and union representatives sit down at the bargaining table. Yet the reality is that well before anyone meets to negotiate a collective bargaining agreement, many issues will have already been decided.

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Mutual Consent

The Colorado Legacy Foundation and The New Teacher Project have prepared guidance to support districts as they implement the mutual consent and related hiring provisions pursuant to S.B. 10-191. The document includes:

  • A brief background on mutual consent (in a question/answer format including an overview of the benefits of mutual consent hiring)
  • A district framework for implementing mutual consent hiring based on five important steps:
    • Establish key definitions
    • Identify and track vacancies
    • Facilitate connections between teachers and schools
    • Implement effective school-based hiring
    • Provide accommodations for non-probationary teachers

The steps include examples, sample definitions, and issues to consider as districts implement mutual consent hiring. The document is available on the Colorado Legacy Foundation’s website.

 

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Evaluation Practices

Implementing Student Learning-Based Educator Evaluation Systems in Colorado
Source/Author: Public Education & Business Coalition

Colorado’s new educator evaluation system provides remarkable opportunities and complex challenges for school districts. This report reflects the initial considerations facing a metro Denver-area school district as district leaders embarked on the process of designing and piloting a new system. It is our hope that the report will benefit other districts undertaking the process of transitioning into an educator evaluation system that focuses on student learning and educator effectiveness.
This report was funded by the Public Education & Business Coalition and the Adams 12 Five-Star School District, and written by Kelly Hupfeld of the Center for Education Policy Analysis at the School of Public Affairs, University of Colorado Denver.

The Widget Effect
Source/Author: The New Teacher Project

The Widget Effect: Our National Failure to Acknowledge and Act on Differences in Teacher Effectiveness (2009) describes how our public education system treats teachers as interchangeable parts, not individual professionals, causing schools to ignore both excellence and ineffectiveness.

Retaining Teacher Talent: Convergence and Contradictions in Teachers’ Perceptions of Policy Reform Ideas
Source/Author: The Learning Point Associates and Public Agenda

Some educational reformers have proposed dramatic changes to teacher evaluation, compensation, and working conditions in hopes that such changes will ultimately improve student learning. The success of these reforms, however, rests in large part on the support of those who will be most directly affected-teachers. Therefore, policymakers need to recognize the critical importance of including teachers in the debate to bring not only nuance and experience to the conversation but also to build legitimacy for the reforms as they are implemented.

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Funding/Budgeting Practices

The promise of educator effectiveness requires attention to the entire human capital system. To identify focus areas please download CDE's Self-Assessment for Building a Healthy Human Capital System in Schools and Districts. CDE's Human Capital Funding Matrix identifies potential sources of state and federal funds that may be used for various activities related to recruiting, training, evaluating, and retaining effective teachers and leaders. The funding matrix is designed as an initial tool to begin conversations about the creative use of available funds. It is intended to help districts match areas of need related to human capital management with available funding sources.

  • Guidance Document: This document provides an overview of how to use the funding matrix. It should be used in conjunction with the funding matrix.
  • Human Capital Funding Matrix: This document lists state and federal funding sources and their allowable uses pertaining to human capital activities.


Close the Hidden Funding Gaps in Our Schools
Source/Author: The Education Trust

"Close the Hidden Funding Gaps in Our Schools" shines a light on widespread and unjust district budgeting practices and offers Congress a straightforward legislative path: Fix the so-called comparability provisions of Title I.

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HR Practices

The promise of educator effectiveness requires attention to the entire human capital system. To identify focus areas please download CDE's Self-Assessment for Building a Healthy Human Capital System in Schools and Districts.


Unintended Consequences

Source/Author: The New Teacher Project

Unintended Consequences: The Case for Reforming the Staffing Rules in Urban Teachers Union Contracts (2005) quantifies the degree to which collectively-bargained teacher transfer and excess rules hamper the ability of schools to make smart hiring decisions

Missed Opportunities
Source/Author: The New Teacher Project

Missed Opportunities: How We Keep High-Quality Teachers Out of Urban Classrooms (2003) analyzes how a web of policy and process barriers prevent urban school districts from hiring the best new teacher applicants by delaying hiring until well into the summer and early fall.

Bumping HR: Giving Principals More Say Over Staffing
Source/Author: The National Council on Teacher Quality

This paper explores the problems, including this latest, that get in the way of the "ifs" and what districts and state legislatures can do differently to provide greater principal autonomy over school staffing. We tap into the 101 large school districts in NCTQ's TR3 database (www.nctq.org/tr3) to examine state laws, regulations and district policies.

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Inequity of Teacher Distribution

Not Prepared for Class: High-Poverty Schools Continue to Have Fewer In-Field Teachers
Source/Author: The Education Trust

Nearly a decade after federal law was enacted to ensure that low-income students and students of color had a fair shot at being assigned to strong teachers, students in high-poverty schools are still disproportionately taught by out-of-field and rookie teachers.

Who's Teaching Our Children?
Source/Author: The National Council on Teacher Quality

Has the elementary and secondary teaching force in the United States changed in recent years? And if so, how? To answer these questions, we recently embarked on a research project to explore trends over the past two decades. We were surprised by what we found. The teaching force has, indeed, been changing - and some of the most dramatic trends appear to be little noticed by researchers, policymakers, and the public.

Fighting for Quality and Equality, Too
Source/Author: The Education Trust

This paper outlines ten steps state policymakers and school district leaders can take now that hold the promise to make a difference in teacher quality and equitable access to the best teachers for low-income students and students of color.

Missing the Mark: An Education Trust Analysis of Teacher-Equity Plans
Source/Author: The Education Trust

This analysis of teacher-equity plans prepared by all 50 states and the District of Columbia finds that most states failed to properly analyze data that would determine whether poor and minority children get more than their fair share of unqualified, inexperienced, and out-of-field teachers.

Collaboration: Closing the Effective Teaching Gap
Source/Author: The Center for Teaching Quality

In this policy brief, the Center for Teaching Quality (CTQ), in partnership with the Teachers Network, offers a powerful perspective on teaching effectiveness and teacher collaboration.

Do Disadvantaged Urban Schools Lose Their Best Teachers?
Source/Author: The Urban Institute

We investigate teacher quality differences by transition status and school characteristics for teachers in a large urban district in Texas using estimates of teacher contributions to student learning as our measure quality.

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Educator Compensation Reform

The Center for Educator Compensation Reform (CECR)

Raising national awareness of effective strategies for performance-based compensation and supporting the
Teacher Incentive Fund Grantees

Lessons Learned from the Center for Educator Compensation Reform's First 10 Case Studies: Executive Summary (PDF)

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