Louisiana Plan for Highly Qualified Teachers Update March 2010

Louisiana Plan for Highly Qualified Teachers Update March 2010 Louisiana has continued its strong commitment to ensure that poor and minority children are not taught by inexperienced, unqualified, or out of field teachers at higher rates than are other children. This continued commitment is evidenced in many ways such as, but not limited to: Louisiana is one of a few states that collects and reports on students and teachers connected to site level class information through its detailed Louisiana Educational Accountability Data System (LEADS) October 1 st collection. Louisiana will shortly begin work on a State Longitudinal Data system called Louisiana Educational Data Repository System (LEDRS) that will enable all of the Department s official data to be connected across all years for which data is available. This will enable Department staff and District personnel, including teachers to review their site performance across years. A new system called Curriculum Verification and Results Reporting Portal (CVR) launched this year. The CVR is a Louisiana Department of Education (LDE) hosted web based portal that will allow teachers and principals to verify the teacherstudent links reported via the LEADS collection, are accurate prior to those data being used in analyses examining achievement outcomes. The data will then be used as a critical element of assessing teacher student and school student achievement outcomes. The achievement outcome assessment will examine students performance on current year LEAP and ileap performance relative to prior years assessment and key factors such as student disabilities. This will be used to identify the contexts in which students are making unusually good and poor progress. Continued collaboration between the Louisiana Board of Regents (BoR), Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE), Louisiana Department of Education (LDE), universities, and school districts through the Blue Ribbon Commission for Educational Excellence to address the needs of students throughout their education. Collaboration between the Louisiana BoR, BESE, LDE and universities to redesign the current general and special education programs to a single integrated to merged program to ensure new teachers have the knowledge and skills needed to better meet the needs of all students in their classrooms. 1

Requirement by the universities with teacher preparation programs that all teacher candidates must pass the Praxis examination in their course of study, thereby meeting the NCLB Highly Qualified teacher requirements, prior to graduation and recommendation for state certification. Increased accessibility and availability of the teacher certification/quality data through the Teach Louisiana website and LEADS that is used during the consolidated monitoring of the federal programs to ensure that districts are placing their certified and qualified teachers equitably throughout the district, ensuring that our poor and minority children are taught by certified and qualified teachers at the same rate as their peers throughout the district. Increased enrollment in Alternative Certification programs from 897 alternate certification candidates in SY 2006 to 1892 alternate certification candidates in SY 2009. Development and implementation of the Value Added Teacher Preparation Assessment Model that examines the growth of achievement of students taught by new teachers and links student growth to the teacher preparation programs that prepare new teachers. According to policy adopted by BESE in March 2010, teacher preparation programs must maintain a satisfactory rating to maintain their state approval. Louisiana continues to face extreme challenges of very large populations of poor and minority children that are pervasive throughout our state. These challenges have increased during the current tough economic conditions. For example, in 2006, Louisiana reported that approximately 62% of students in our public schools were in poverty, as measured by those who are eligible for free and reduced lunch. In that same year, approximately 92% of the public schools reported more than 30% of their students were living in poverty. In 2009, approximately 66% of our students were eligible for free and reduced lunch while over 95% of the schools reported that they have more than 30% of their students at the poverty level. Even with the high rate of poverty in our state, approximately 87% of our school districts have increased the number of core content classes that are taught by teachers meeting the NCLB highly qualified teacher requirements. See Table 2. Sub Strategy Updates The Office of Educator Support, Division of Certification, Leadership and Preparation staff has taken the lead to ensure that Louisiana is continuing to address all activities in the seven Sub Strategies defined in our approved June 2006 Teacher Equity Plan. As the activities have been implemented, changes have been made as appropriate to ensure 2

that all activities are directed toward meeting our goal of ensuring that our poor and minority children are taught by certified and qualified teachers at the same rate as their peers throughout the district. The following is a summary of the activities and outcomes for each sub strategy. Sub Strategy 1: Data and Reporting Systems Utilize the state s multi layered data collection and reporting systems to better identify and potentially correct inequities in teacher distribution in high poverty/high minority schools vs. low poverty/low minority schools. Since July 2006, the Division of Certification, Leadership and Preparation has continued to expand the Teach Louisiana website in an effort to make teacher certification publicly available. Parents and other stakeholders can review credentials and highly qualified information on teachers via the Teach Louisiana website. The website also makes matching teacher vacancies with prospective educators more feasible through the use of the on line job application featured on the website. A state data system has been incorporated into the Teach Louisiana website in order to provide technical assistance to high poverty, high minority districts. Also, the continued services provided by the Regional Certification Counselors supports the effective use of this data system by school districts in LA. Finally, the Teacher Certification Management System/database has been updated to include a new feature that provides accountability by tracking certification requests assigned to certification specialists in order to reduce the time it takes to issue educator licenses. Sub Strategy 2: Teacher Preparation Strengthen the state s teacher preparation accountability system to further support the preparation of high quality teachers for high poverty, low performing schools. The Louisiana Value Added Assessment of Teacher Preparation Programs (VAA TPP) assesses the impact of new teachers from specific teacher preparation programs on student achievement. Based on this assessment, teacher preparation programs are identified as Level 1 (program completers performing above experienced teachers), Level 2 (program completers performing similarly to experienced teachers), Level 3 (program completers performing similarly to new average teachers), Level 4 (program completers performing more poorly than average new teachers) or Level 5 (program completers performing significantly more poorly than average new teachers). The VAA TPP has been developed and is supported by the BOR and BESE. According to policy adopted by the BESE in March 2010, for continued state approval, public and private higher education institutions and private providers must maintain value added assessment results at Level 3 or better. Any teacher preparation program that receives a Level 4 or 5 in any content area shall immediately be assigned a designation of Programmatic Intervention. Programmatic intervention will include a review of the existing program in that content area by a team composed of key personnel 3

within the program, a nationally recognized expert from within or outside the state identified by the program provider, and a content area specialist designated by the State Superintendent of Education. The review must be completed within one year of the Programmatic Intervention designation and be used to create a corrective action plan to address the needs. Failure to improve Value Added Assessment results to a Level 3 or better within a BESE approved timeline may result in the teacher preparation program losing state approval for that content area. Sub Strategy 3: Out of Field Teaching Implement policies, programs, and practices that reduce the incidence of out of field teaching in high poverty, low performing schools. The Regional Certification Counselors employed in each of the state s eight regions meet with every teacher throughout Louisiana employed on an Out of Field Authority to Teach (OFAT) ensuring that they understand the guidelines and timelines required for certification. They also aid these teachers with PRAXIS preparation and in obtaining university courses required to meet the add on requirements. The Teach Louisiana website has also been updated to include guidelines for all add on certification areas. All special education courses offered by Louisiana universities can be found on the Teach Louisiana website, allowing OFAT teachers the opportunity to view any coursework that universities offer for special education add on certification purposes. Staff from the Division of Certification, Leadership and Preparation has provided technical assistance to universities and districts in using data available on the Teach Louisiana website to identify teachers employed on OFAT certificates in their prospective regions so that support can be provided. During the 2004 05 school year, the LDE issued 1,282 OFATs to teachers teaching out of their area of certification. During the 2008 09 school year, the LDE issued 986 OFATs. To support the districts in the recruitment and retention of HQ teachers, Louisiana has revised the requirements needed for the Out of State (OS) license. This streamlined process enables qualified teachers moving into Louisiana to readily obtain the OS license and increases the pool of certified and HQ teachers in our state. All certification information is readily available at www.teachlouisiana.net. Sub Strategy 4: Recruitment and Retention of Experienced Teachers Implement policies, programs, and practices that build a critical mass of qualified, experienced teachers willing to work in hard to staff schools. Beginning in SY 2006, the LDE in collaboration with the Louisiana BoR convened the Mild/Moderate Special Education Licensure and Teacher Education Institute. The overall goal of the three Institutes was to make recommendations for how teacher preparation 4

programs could be enhanced to meet the needs of students with mild/moderate disabilities in regular and special education classrooms. The ultimate outcome was integration of general and special education programs into a single merged program. The new merged program is being implemented in universities beginning in July 2010. As a result of this merged teacher preparation program, new teachers will be better trained to meet the needs of all learners in the classroom. This new merged program will also increase the pool of teachers available for districts that are dually trained to work in either general or special education classrooms, ensuring that the needs of all students are met. During FY 2008 and 2009, the LDE hosted two Recruitment and Retention Symposiums for universities and districts in the area of special education. A national consultant was hired to meet with several districts prior to the symposiums to develop action plans for the recruitment and retention of special education teachers in their regions of the state. After the initial meeting, all district and universities were encouraged to send participants to both symposiums so that all regions of the state would be represented. The participants included faculty from the education and special education departments at the university levels, human resources personnel and special education directors at the district levels. The universities and districts were strategically placed in groups to develop recruitment and retention options for that specific region. This placement of participants was critical to have conversation taking place between providers and employers to aid in bridging the gap between program completers and the placement of teachers. The overall goal of these meetings was to identify strategies to increase the recruitment and retention of qualified special education teachers throughout the districts in Louisiana. All school systems are encouraged to use Teach Louisiana s Recruitment Center to post all job vacancies. Staff from the Teacher Certification section in the Division of Certification, Leadership and Preparation continues to travel to Job Fairs to aid anyone who is interested in using Teach Louisiana to post vacancies and/or hire employees from the Teach Louisiana website. The Louisiana School Turnaround Specialist (LSTS) Program for leadership development was designed to strengthen the organizational and instructional leadership skills of currently certified and experienced principals to prepare them to lead low performing schools to higher student achievement. The LSTS pilot program began in SY 2007 2008. At that time, the participants, principals of the low performing schools, traveled to the University of Virginia (UVA) for training. In Cohort 1, eight of the eleven original participants successfully completed the program and nine of the eleven schools improved, meeting the established performance based criteria. For Cohort 2, eight of the eleven participants completed the training at UVA and seven of the eleven schools met their performance targets. In September 2009, BESE approved seven Louisiana Universities as providers of the Louisiana School Turnaround Specialist program. This in state regional model will allow 5

more candidates to enroll and address the needs of more low performing schools. At the present time, the State Department of Education has identified sixty seven Cohort 3 candidates that will participate in the program delivered by the approved Louisiana university providers. Adopted by BESE in October 2006 as part of the educational leader certification structure, there is an option for a teacher to become certified as a teacher leader. This optional endorsement allows principals the opportunity to afford leadership experiences to teachers at the school level and recruit potential educational leader candidates for their school districts. Teacher Leader is the certification authorization needed by those who fill school site leadership roles (e.g., serving as a school curriculum coordinator, chairperson or content teacher, serving as the School Improvement Team Chairperson, serving as the lead teacher in developing and scheduling a special activity at the school site, serving as the lead teacher in the school's preparation for a technical assistance visit etc.) This endorsement is valid for five years and is renewable every five years based upon successful completion and verification of 150 continuing learning units of professional development consistent with the Individual Professional Growth Plan (IPGP) over a fiveyear time period. Sub Strategy 5: Professional Development Implement policies, programs, and practices that strengthen and build the skills, knowledge, and qualifications of teachers already working in high poverty, lowperforming schools and districts. Louisiana is continuing to address the professional development needs of teachers working in high poverty, lower performing schools in order to improve student academic achievement. Beginning in Fall 2006, the LDE staff provided statewide training and technical assistance on the use of Louisiana s Components of Effective Professional Development as a means to ensure that the professional development provided by the state, regions, districts, and schools were targeted to the specific needs of the teachers in the schools and was of sufficient rigor to initiate needed changes. The Regional Education Service Centers (RESCs) continue to provide invaluable assistance to districts and teachers by providing on going professional development opportunities to support the teachers in high poverty, low performing schools and districts. In Fall 2007, the LDE hosted the Louisiana Educators Capacity Building and Collaboration Kick Off Summit in which Pacesetter (High Performing) Schools were paired with High Priority/High Need Schools with similar demographics. The Pacesetter schools shared strategies that they used to increase their overall student performance with the High Priority/High Need schools. The Pacesetter Schools also assisted their paired schools in the development of their 100 Day Charge, a framework for action. Selected staff from the High Priority/High Need Schools made an on site visit to their paired Pacesetter 6

schools in order to continue their dialogues and seek information for enhancing their education programs. The LDE continues to address the need for high quality professional development for all educators in the state. In response to this need, the LDE offers free online and face toface professional development that addresses the need to increase content knowledge and improve delivery of the content to Louisiana students of the 21 st century. The LDE offers courses, workshops, and programs to support on going professional development at no cost to the educators or the districts. Teachers are encouraged to select and participate in professional development that best suit their individual needs as well as the needs of their students. Teachers may also earn Continuing Learning Units (CLUs) which are required for re licensure. A listing of the available professional development is found on the LDE website in the Division of Professional Development. Sub Strategy 6: Working Conditions Implement programs and practices designed to improve the conditions in high need schools. Louisiana has expanded the implementation of the Teacher Advancement Program (TAP) from five schools in SY 2003 04 to forty one schools in SY 09 10. TAP is a comprehensive program of professional development that includes four components: performance pay, multiple career paths, applied professional development, and instructionally focused accountability. According to a recent review of the program completed by Peggy C. Kirby, Ph.D. in September 2009, TAP schools tend to serve greater proportions of minority students and those eligible to receive free or reduced price lunch based on family income than Louisiana public schools in general. The review also indicated that teachers appear to be very positive about the levels of collegiality, opportunities for professional development and the accountability associated with TAP. Sub Strategy 7: Policy Coherence Improve internal processes and policies that may inadvertently contribute to local staffing inequities. Since 2006, the Division of Certification, Leadership and Preparation has continued to reduce the length of time needed to process requests for all types of certification (i.e. new; add on; relicensure). This continued effort by all certification staff ensures that the Louisiana Department of Education is assisting the districts in meeting their goals of ensuring that all students, regardless of race, poverty, and/or school assignment are taught by certified and highly qualified teachers. The Division of Certification, Leadership and Preparation currently processes approximately 23,000 certification requests annually. The length of time required to process a request has decreased significantly over the last five years, from approximately 30 days to 8.5 days or less at the present time. The most 7

recent results from a customer satisfaction survey indicate that 94.2% of the teacher certification applicants reported their certification experience as satisfactory or better. The following tables provide data on the success of the work of the LDE in meeting the challenges of ensuring that poor and minority children are not taught by inexperienced, unqualified, or out of field teachers at higher rates than are other children. Although Louisiana has not met its goal of having 100% of the core content courses taught by teachers meeting the NCLB Highly Qualified teacher requirements, we are making progress as evidenced by the following: Table I. Since FY 2007, almost 3.5% more Louisiana students are in core classes taught by HQ teachers. In high poverty secondary schools, this increase was almost 4%. School Type Total # of Core Academic classes Percentage of Core Academic classes taught by HQT FY FY 2007 2008 Percentage of Core Academic classes Taught by Non-HQT FY FY 2007 2008 FY FY 2007 2008 All Schools 181,234 179,094 82.4 85.88 17.6 14.12 Elementary High Poverty 21,201 21,195 82.3 81.1* 17.7 18.9 Elementary Low Poverty 21,020 31,073 94.2 93.6* 5.8 6.4 All Elementary Schools 85,506 83,549 88.4 91.88 11.6 8.12 Secondary High Poverty 24,551 11,400 67.0 70.9 33.0 29.1 Secondary Low Poverty 23,777 265,117 88.2 91.9 11.8 8.1 All Secondary 95,728 95,545 77.1 80.63 22.9 19.37 *The decrease in the number of classes taught by HQ teachers may be the result of many factors, including but not limited to: (1) Teacher Retirement/Attrition; (2) Increasing the number of inclusion classes thereby increasing the number of classes taught by certified special education teachers that are working towards the HQT designation; and/or (3) Improved data reporting by the LEAs. Table 2. In FY 2006, Louisiana originally had 74 LEAs. Since then, the landscape has changed, and Louisiana currently has 106 LEAs. The Central Community School District became independent from East Baton Rouge Parish in FY 2008. In addition, charter schools and schools operated by the state s Recovery School District (RSD) are considered separate LEAs for statistical purposes. 8

a. In 2006, only 43 of the 74 LEAs (58%) had at least 75% of their core classes taught by HQ teachers. b. In 2008, 51 of the original LEAS (69%) had at least 75% of their core classes taught by HQ teachers. c. In 2008, 27 of the original LEAS increased the core classes taught by HQ teachers by at least 10%. District 2006 Percent HQ classes 2008 Percent HQ Classes Change in HQT% New Vision Learning Academy 87.09% 100.00% 12.91% West Feliciana Parish 97.52% 98.98% 1.46% Lincoln Parish 90.71% 98.75% 8.04% Zachary Community School District 89.40% 98.48% 9.08% Vermilion Parish 95.10% 98.44% 3.34% City of Monroe School District 79.35% 97.72% 18.37% Jefferson Davis Parish 97.17% 97.46% 0.29% Red River Parish 97.91% 97.44% 0.47% St. Tammany Parish 90.49% 96.96% 6.47% St. Charles Parish 81.74% 96.54% 14.80% Jackson Parish 95.71% 96.51% 0.80% Webster Parish 89.47% 96.42% 6.95% Caldwell Parish 92.32% 96.01% 3.69% East Carroll Parish 57.64% 95.79% 38.15% Bossier Parish 88.70% 95.71% 7.01% Ouachita Parish 91.16% 95.66% 4.50% St. Martin Parish 81.00% 95.50% 14.50% LaSalle Parish 87.46% 94.48% 7.02% Beauregard Parish 87.93% 94.38% 6.45% Livingston Parish 91.34% 93.93% 2.59% DeSoto Parish 88.89% 93.63% 4.74% St. Bernard Parish 83.06% 93.21% 10.15% Morehouse Parish 86.32% 92.99% 6.67% Winn Parish 83.13% 92.41% 9.28% Iberia Parish 97.79% 92.09% 5.70% West Baton Rouge Parish 94.40% 92.02% 2.38% Ascension Parish 83.06% 91.57% 8.51% LSU Laboratory School 95.58% 91.57% 4.01% Calcasieu Parish 85.93% 91.28% 5.35% Pointe Coupee Parish 70.98% 90.55% 19.57% Lafourche Parish 85.72% 89.54% 3.82% City of Bogalusa School District 85.39% 88.09% 2.70% Districts in bold orange font are located in poor, rural areas where it has traditionally been difficult to attract and retain HQ teachers. Percent of change in bold red font indicate a decrease of 1% or greater in the percent of core content classes taught by teachers meeting the NCLB HTQ requirements since the 2006 application. 9

Natchitoches Parish 68.70% 88.07% 19.37% Caddo Parish 80.50% 87.76% 7.26% Assumption Parish 73.12% 87.22% 14.10% Allen Parish 87.63% 87.03% 0.60% Washington Parish 73.57% 86.89% 13.32% Rapides Parish 55.97% 86.75% 30.78% Districts in bold orange font are Union Parish 82.42% 86.32% 3.90% located in poor, rural areas where Evangeline Parish 70.98% 86.10% 15.12% it has traditionally been difficult to Bienville Parish 58.26% 85.11% 26.85% attract and retain HQ teachers. Acadia Parish 66.79% 84.65% 17.86% Concordia Parish 75.04% 84.38% 9.34% Percent of change in bold red font Richland Parish 73.57% 84.05% 10.48% indicate a decrease of 1% or St. John the Baptist Parish 63.79% 83.79% 20.00% greater in the percent of core content classes taught by teachers Catahoula Parish 89.24% 83.76% 5.48% meeting the NCLB HTQ Tangipahoa Parish 60.36% 83.63% 23.27% requirements since the 2006 Iberville Parish 74.54% 83.01% 8.47% application. Grant Parish 78.91% 82.82% 3.91% Jefferson Parish 48.41% 82.80% 34.39% Lafayette Parish 56.93% 81.31% 24.38% St. James Parish 93.21% 81.12% 12.09% St. Helena Parish 41.74% 81.01% 39.27% East Baton Rouge Parish 74.78% 80.71% 5.93% St. Mary Parish 77.19% 80.31% 3.12% Terrebonne Parish 75.15% 80.10% 4.95% Vernon Parish 56.60% 78.68% 22.08% East Feliciana Parish 45.42% 78.41% 32.99% Avoyelles Parish 86.95% 77.90% 9.05% Franklin Parish 67.31% 76.39% 9.08% West Carroll Parish 68.69% 76.05% 7.36% Orleans Parish 58.48% 72.83% 14.35% Southern University Lab School 75.00% 71.77% 3.23% Claiborne Parish 54.94% 71.43% 16.49% Louisiana School for the Visually Impaired 30.30% 70.42% 40.12% Cameron Parish 62.13% 70.30% 8.17% Louisiana School for the Deaf 29.95% 68.35% 38.40% Madison Parish 68.11% 66.01% 2.10% St. Landry Parish 59.95% 65.46% 5.51% Sabine Parish 75.35% 63.86% 11.49% City of Baker School District 54.35% 63.83% 9.48% Plaquemines Parish 68.62% 58.75% 9.87% Special School District 22.06% 54.19% 32.13% Tensas Parish 81.66% 49.09% 32.57% 10

Table 3. In 2008, of the 32 new LEAs that did not exist in 2006, only 8 had at least 75% of their core classes taught by HQ teachers. It is important to note, however, that most of these schools are operated by the Louisiana Department of Education s Recovery School District. These schools were subject to state takeover due to persistently poor academic performance and are in the very early stages of turnaround. % of core content classes taught by HQT at the end District of SY 2008 RSD Advocacy for the Arts & Tech in N.O., Inc. 100.00% RSD Friends of King 96.40% Belle Chasse Academy, Inc. 96.12% Central Community School District 95.83% Louisiana Special Education Center 88.89% Delhi Charter School 87.83% V. B. Glencoe Charter School 80.00% RSD Broadmoor Charter School Board 78.72% RSD Intercultural Charter School Board, Inc. 70.00% RSD UNO New Beginnings Schools Foundation 67.69% RSD Dryades YMCA 67.27% RSD New Orleans Charter Schools Foundation 66.67% RSD Treme Charter Schools Association 66.67% The MAX Charter School 60.00% Milestone SABIS Academy of New Orleans 55.42% Recovery School District LDE 55.25% RSD Choice Foundation 55.10% RSD FirstLine Schools, Inc. 53.91% RSD New Orleans College Prep Academies 53.49% RSD Akili Academy of New Orleans 50.00% RSD Algiers Charter Schools Association (ACSA) 45.84% Avoyelles Public Charter School 45.27% International School of Louisiana 43.23% RSD ADVANCE Baton Rouge 43.21% RSD 100 Black Men Capitol Charter Initiative 40.00% RSD Esperanza Charter School Association 38.46% RSD Advocacy for Science and Math Education 33.33% RSD SUNO Institute for Academic Excellence 31.58% RSD Pelican Educational Foundation 22.22% RSD Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP) N.O. 18.86% RSD NOLA 180 16.25% RSD Miller McCoy Academy for Math and Business 11.11% 11

12