Office of Curriculum, Technology, & Assessment

Beyond this, the new Improving Teacher Quality State Grants program tailors local planning requirements to focus on achieving results by requiring LEAs to target their funds on schools with the greatest need for assistance; and mandating stronger measures with which to hold their schools accountable for improved teacher quality.

The requirement that teachers be highly qualified applies to public elementary or secondary school teachers who teach a core academic subject. (The term "core academic subjects" means English, reading or language arts, mathematics, science, foreign languages, civics and government, economics, arts, history, and geography [Title IX, Section 910(11)].) "Highly qualified" means that the teacher:

• holds a minimum of a bachelor’s degree;
• has obtained full State certification as a teacher (including certification obtained through alternative routes to certification) and holds a license to teach in this State;

• has not had certification or licensure requirements waived on an emergency, temporary, or provisional basis; and
• has demonstrated subject area competence in each of the academic subjects in which the teacher teaches, in a manner determined by the State and in compliance with section 9101(23) of ESEA.

A paraprofessional is an individual with instructional duties. Individuals who work solely in non-instructional roles, such as food service, cafeteria or playground supervision, personal care services, and not-instructional computer assistance are not considered to be paraprofessionals for Title I purposes.

The term "high quality professional development" means professional development that meets the criteria outlined in the definition of professional development in Title IX, section 9101(34) of ESEA. This definition is provided below:

A. The term ‘professional development’ includes activities that:

1. improve and increase teachers’ knowledge of the academic subjects the teachers teach, and enable teachers to become highly qualified;
2. are an integral part of broad schoolwide and districtwide educational improvement plans;
3. give teachers, principals, and administrators the knowledge and skills to provide students with the opportunity to meet challenging State academic content standards and student academic achievement standards;
4. improve classroom management skills;
5. are high quality, sustained, intensive, and classroom-focused in order to have a positive and lasting impact on classroom instruction and the teacher’s performance in the classroom and are not 1-day or short-term workshops or conferences;
6. support the recruiting, hiring, and training of highly qualified teachers, including teachers who become highly qualified through State and local alternative routes to certification;
7. advance teacher understanding of effective instructional strategies that are;
   1. based on scientifically based research (except that this subclause shall not apply to activities carried out under Part D of Title II);
   2. strategies for improving student academic achievement or substantially increasing the knowledge and teaching skills of teachers; and

8. are aligned with and directly related to:

   1. State academic content standards, student academic achievement standards, and assessments; and
   2. the curricula and programs tied to the standards described in subclause (a) [except that this subclause shall not apply to activities described in clauses (ii) and (iii) of section 2123(3)(B)];
       
9. are developed with extensive participation of teachers, principals, parents, and administrators of schools to be served under this Act:
10. are designed to give teachers of limited English proficient children, and other teachers and instructional staff, the knowledge and skills to provide instruction and appropriate language and academic support services to those children, including the appropriate use of curricula and assessments;
11. provide training, to the extent appropriate, for teachers and principals in the use of technology so that technology and technology applications are effectively used in the classroom to improve teaching and learning in the curricula and core academic subjects in which the teachers teach;
12. are regularly evaluated, as a whole, for their impact on increased teacher effectiveness and improved student academic achievement, with the findings of the evaluations used to improve the quality of professional development;
13. provide instruction in methods of teaching children with special needs;
14. include instruction in the use of data and assessments to inform and instruct classroom practice; and
15. include instruction in ways that teachers, principals, pupil services personnel, and school administrators may work more effectively with parents; and

B. May include activities that:

1. involve the forming of partnerships with institutions of higher education to establish school-based teacher training programs that provide prospective teachers and beginning teachers with an opportunity to work under the guidance of experienced teachers and college faculty;
2. create programs to enable paraprofessionals (assisting teachers employed by a local educational agency receiving assistance under Part A of Title I) to obtain the education necessary for those paraprofessionals to become certified and licensed teachers; and
3. provide follow-up training to teachers who have participated in  activities described in subparagraph (A) or another clause of this subparagraph that is designed to ensure that the knowledge and skills learned by the teachers are implemented in the classroom [Title IX, Part A, section 9101(34)].

The term "scientifically based research":

1. means research that involves the application of rigorous, systematic, and objective procedures to obtain reliable and valid knowledge relevant to education activities and programs; and
2. includes research that—

• employs systematic, empirical methods that draw on observation or experiment;
• involves rigorous data analyses that are adequate to test the stated hypotheses and justify the general conclusions drawn;
• relies on measurements or observational methods that provide reliable and valid data across evaluators and observers, across multiple measurements and observations, and across studies by the same or different investigators;
• is evaluated using experimental or quasi-experimental designs in which individuals, entities, programs, or activities are assigned to different conditions and with appropriate controls to evaluate the effects of the condition of interest, with a preference for random-assignment experiments, or other designs to the extent that those designs contain within-condition or across-condition controls;
• ensures that experimental studies are presented in sufficient detail and clarity to allow for replication or, at a minimum, offer the opportunity to build systematically on their findings; and
• has been accepted by a peer-reviewed journal or approved by a panel of independent experts through a comparably rigorous, objective, and scientific review [Title IX, Part A, section 9101(37)].

RESOURCES: 

Teachers Who Learn, Kids Who Achieve: What Does It Take To Translate Professional Development Into Impressive Learning Gains For Students. This document looks at schools with model professional development programs.