October 2007 — Features
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Help Wanted
The BRIDGE and Tapped In provide frameworks for these activities, but additional support is required. "We are finding that participation increases when activities are tied to specific needs, and when there are extrinsic incentives such as continuing education credit," Fulton says. "It also helps to have good facilitators to keep the group focused and active." (Additional suggestions for successful online communities are available on the NCTAF website.)
Drawing On the Data
Several recommendations have come from NCTAF’s June report. To wit, school districts need to invest in teacher induction and support programs and reexamine their existing data management systems. Designing a meaningful plan for improved data collection and analysis—coupled with solid teacher recruitment, induction, and support programs— requires crossing district departmental lines and including site administrators and teaching staff. A first step for districts is to lay the groundwork to make data-driven decisions about teacher turnover.
Educators have ready access to student data. Yet the study found little consistency in the data collected about individual teachers across the five pilot districts. NCTAF also discovered that it was diffi- cult to access existing data because the information was stored in a variety of databases that were not necessarily compatible. As a result, districts were not making data-driven staffing decisions.
The lack of consistent collection and reporting of teacher data is not confined to these five districts. "Linking Teacher and Student Data to Improve Teacher and Teaching Quality," a report issued in March by the Center for Teaching Quality, identifies lack of teacher data as a widespread problem. And the American Board for Certification of Teacher Excellence points out that even mandated US Department of Education statelevel reports on highly qualified teachers include discrepancies.
