1. Virginia’s Plan to Ensure Excellent Educators for All Students: Highlights and Implementation Update
Virginia Department of Education
Tiffany Frierson, Title II/IV Specialist
Virginia Middle School and High School Principals’ Conference and Exposition
June 26-29, 2016

2. Background for Virginia
Initial equity plan submitted in 2006
Updates in 2009, 2010, and 2012
Highly qualified (HQT), Experience, Out-of-Field data elements
Six areas of focus for strategies:
Data Systems
Teacher Preparation and Out-of-Field Teaching
Recruitment and Retention
Professional Development
Working Conditions
Policy Coherence
To provide a little background information:
NCLB included a requirement that all states submit an equity plan focused on ensuring that poor and minority students have equitable access to qualified and experienced teachers.
The first plan was required in 2006, and updates were submitted in 2009, 2010, and 2012.
Those initial plans required states to analyze several data elements, including a variety of highly qualified teacher data, as well as teacher experience and class assignment data.
From that analysis, states were to outline specific strategies undertaken by states around several focus areas.. These focus areas included….

3. Statute
States must develop plans to ensure that “poor and minority students are not taught by unqualified, inexperienced, or out-of-field teachers at a disproportionate rate than students in other schools.” (Section 1111(b)(8)(C))
Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA), as amended by the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB)
This slide outlines the specific statute in the law related to equity plans.
As many of you know, the law has recently been reauthorized. I don’t have the specific citation indicated on this slide, but please be aware that the new ESSA law does contain similar requirements around state equity plans.

4. Overview of Excellent Educators for All Initiative
New plans were submitted to the U.S. Department of Education on June 1, 2015:
VDOE staff were required to
Update the previous Equity Plan and engage teachers, principals, districts, parents, and community organizations throughout the process of writing and implementing the plan
Implement a process for ongoing monitoring and reporting of progress
Virginia has had a teacher equity plan in place since Last year, USED required that states develop updated plans that were to be submitted by June 1, 2015.
States were expected to
Update the current plan while engaging a variety of stakeholders throughout the process including . . .
outline a plan for how efforts would be monitored, as well as a timeline for ongoing reporting of progress toward implementing the plan and reducing the equity gaps.

5. Overview of Excellent Educators for All Initiative
New plans were submitted to the U.S. Department of Education on June 1, 2015:
Internal and external stakeholders
Conducted an analysis of state data to identify equity gaps
Considered the root causes of equity gaps
Identified strategies linked to root causes
States needed to engage a variety of internal and external stakeholders in discussions review the analysis of the data that revealed the equity gaps
Stakeholders brainstormed the root causes of the equity gaps
Based on those root causes, states were expected to begin the process of looking at strategies to address these root causes in an effort to reduce the gaps.
Additionally, states were expected to outline a plan for how efforts would be monitored, as well as a timeline for ongoing reporting of progress.

6. Data Analysis and Equity Gaps

7. Key Gaps: Overview Experience: Out of Field:
Inexperienced teachers in high-minority divisions (5.8%)
Out of Field:
ESL endorsed teachers in high-poverty divisions (6%)
Foreign language teachers in high-poverty divisions (2.3%)
Special education teachers in high-poverty (2.4%) and high-minority divisions (1.8%)
Mathematics teachers in high-minority divisions (1.3%)
As a summary, here are the gaps that were identified as a result of our data analysis…… READ
Generally speaking, most are relatively minor and we will continue to analyze data to see what type of progress is being made.

8. Root-Cause Analysis
During our stakeholder meetings, we discussed possible causes for the equity gaps that our data revealed.

9. Root Causes Common Root Cause Categories Unique Root Cause Categories
Teacher Preparation
Recruitment
Working Conditions
Professional Development
Unique Root Cause Categories
Mathematics
ESL
Several of the root causes were cross-cutting, and it was felt that they impacted several of the equity gaps. These became initial topics for additional discussions and they include . . .
Then there were a few root causes that were specific to teachers of mathematics and English as a Second Language teachers.

10. Strategies for Addressing Equity Gaps
Once the equity gaps were identified and possible root causes were discussed then the internal stakeholder group or VDOE staff brainstormed current strategies that already addressed these gaps.

11. Current Strategies A periodic review of licensure regulations
The Aspiring Special Education Leaders Academy is a year-long program designed for educators who aspire to be in a leadership position and who are not currently a special education director.
VDOE Content Teaching Academies
The Virginia Middle School Mathematics Teacher Corps places mathematics specialists in high-needs middle schools.
The VDOE has partnered with certain IHEs to offer no-cost ESL endorsement programs for teachers in school divisions with critical ESL endorsement shortages.
These are just a few of the strategies/activities that were already in place that helped to address teacher equity.

12. Teacher Preparation Root Causes
Additional teacher preparation in working across the following areas may be beneficial:
Diverse needs of at-risk students;
High-minority or high-poverty populations; and
Different grade spans.
Insufficient numbers of teacher candidates are becoming licensed or endorsed for high-needs content or specialty areas.
One major root cause that was identified was teacher preparation. The external workgroup
suggested that teacher preparation needed to include specific work or training in
Meeting the diverse needs of at-risk students
Including working with high-minority or high-poverty populations
And different grade spans
For example, I went to JMU and my practicum and student teaching experience was in Rockingham County, not very diverse, but I did have three Russian students in my 5th grade class, but not one strategy to work with them and my 7th grade experience did provide me with experience with potential high school drop outs, but these were kids who would have a job when they dropped out, the family farm. I ended up working in the east end of Henrico County where about 95% of the population was African American and if they dropped out, they probably wouldn’t have had a permanent job waiting for them.
Stakeholders indicated that Teacher prep. Programs are not producing enough math, science and ESL teachers in several areas of the state, so hiring can be problematic

13. Teacher Preparation Root Causes
Teacher demographics do not reflect student demographics in high-needs schools.
Teacher preparation programs at various state institutes of higher education (IHEs) are of disparate quality.
At my first school, where 95% of the students were African American, only about 20%-30% of the teachers were African American.
We also discussed that They have a tendency to provide training that meets the needs in their immediate area, but many people do not find teaching jobs in the area they go to school.

14. Teacher Preparation: Recommended Strategies
The IHEs should:
Strengthen alignment of teacher preparation program training, such as clinical experience, and practical classroom experiences.
Consider placing teachers in a variety of schools to gain experience in diverse settings.
Strengthen diversity education in teacher preparation coursework so that all educators have an understanding of the needs of different subgroups of students such as students in poverty, English language learners, and students with disabilities.
There were several teacher preparation strategies that were also recommended.
It was suggested that institutes of higher education . . .
Allowing students to travel to places they would like to teach when they graduated
Some schools allow for this option now but it may not be required and it is not offered or allowed at every college or university.
Add or strengthen diversity training so that new teachers would be better equipped to work with different subgroups of students.

15. Teacher Preparation: Recommended Strategies
The VDOE should:
Strengthen regulatory oversight of teacher preparation programs to ensure consistent program delivery across the state.
Strengthen preparation of teacher candidates to better prepare them for working in high-poverty and/or high-minority schools.
The external stakeholder workgroup also suggested that VDOE should work to ensure program consistency across the state.
There are many high-poverty and high-minority school divisions in Virginia and the external stakeholder workgroup emphasized the need to better prepare new teachers to work with students in these schools.

16. Recruitment: Recommended Strategies
The VDOE and school divisions should initiate a public service campaign to highlight the positive aspects of the teaching profession and school successes, such as “I Am the One” for special education or the former “Teachers Rock” campaign.
The VDOE should make an online statewide recruitment tool available as a resource to recruit teachers.
This slide outlines some of the recommendations made in our stakeholder workgroups to improve recruitment efforts: ….
We are currently working with the teacher licensure office to update an online recruitment tool and to create a new public service campaign to help make teaching more appealing to millennials

17. Recruitment: Recommended Strategies
School divisions should use a variety of hiring strategies to attract teachers to hard-to-fill positions. For example:
Host regional job fairs;
Advertise through career centers at regional institutes of higher education;
Revise hiring timeline to be able to provide “early contract” options;
Provide signing bonuses; and/or
Offer loan forgiveness incentives or highlight existing loan forgiveness options.
Finally, a recommendation for local school divisions included….

18. Working Conditions: Recommended Strategies
School divisions should:
Strengthen school leadership in high-needs schools by placing accomplished principals at these schools;
Provide division-level support to principals and other school leaders to ensure they are able to properly support teachers; and
Consider conducting a working conditions survey to accurately identify sources of stress for teachers that impact long-term stability in employment.
Recommended strategies to improve working conditions include
Placing accomplished principals from high needs schools in other high needs schools
. . . Many schools in improvement can choose this as an strategy but should be done before a school gets into improvement status
. . . This could be powerful as long as some of the survey feedback is carried out. We know of a few divisions like Alexandria and Fairfax that conduct the TELL survey and have found it to be very beneficial

19. Professional Development: Recommended Strategies
School divisions should:
Establish pre-service and in-service division-level support structures
Encourage effective regional collaboration
Collaborate with regionally-based IHEs to enhance professional development support for teachers.
VDOE and school divisions should promote and encourage regional collaboration for joint professional development offerings.
The stakeholder groups put forth the recommendations shown here for professional development:
At the school division level, they indicated that it would be good to establish partnerships with university programs to match up pre-service teachers and in-service teachers to prepare the new teachers for the realities of working with ELLs in the classroom. Additionally, this university collaboration would also be beneficial for in-service teachers to take advantage of research-based skills
Enhance regional efforts around collaboration and sharing of resources and PD trainings, especially in smaller/rural areas
VDOE should promote and encourage professional learning collaborations whenever possible as well.

20. Mathematics: Recommended Strategies
Encourage IHEs to develop a pilot program designed to prepare pre-service mathematics teachers to work in high-needs schools.
School divisions should design “Grow Your Own” programs to increase diversity in the mathematics teaching force. Examples:
“Call Me Mister” program at Clemson University which recruits young black males to the teaching profession
“Teacher Cadet” program at local high schools
Recommended mathematics strategies include . . . -
One of my favorite suggestions is a Grow Your Own program in which school divisions begin recruiting their own students to each math such as . . .

21. ESL: Recommended Strategies
School divisions should create a cohort of teachers already employed by the school division to complete ESL endorsement programs. Consideration should be given toward the development of regional cohorts as well.
The VDOE should continue to develop and offer opportunities for teachers in high-need divisions to enroll in ESL endorsement or certificate programs at a reduced rate or no cost.
IHEs should create cohorts of pre-service teachers to work with cohorts of practicing teachers seeking ESL endorsements.
Some of the recommended strategies from our stakeholders include… ….

22. Action Steps Completed
Webinars
Promising Professional Development Practices
Grow Your Own Initiatives
Local Equity Data Analysis and Strategy Development
Working Conditions Surveys
ESL
Conducted meeting with an external math workgroup
Created a full-time position dedicated to the professional development of teachers working with ELLs.
Plan and coordinate programs to assist high-need school divisions to increase the number of ESL-endorsed teachers.

23. Next Steps Online teacher recruitment tool
Teacher recruitment campaign
Workgroup to discuss ways to improve teacher preparation including clinical experiences, diversity training and working in high-poverty/minority settings
Update plan

24. Allowable Uses of Title II, Part A Funding
Recruitment and retention of properly licensed and endorsed teachers and principals;
Coursework and professional development for teachers in federal core content areas, principals, paraprofessionals, and superintendents;
Testing expenses (teachers, principals, and paraprofessionals);
New teacher mentoring;
Title IIA funding may be used in a variety of ways. The major thing to keep in mind is that while the ultimate goal is to improve academic achievement for students, the funding for this program is targeted to teachers, principals, paraprofessionals or superintendents to increase their capacity and effectiveness or working with students. And of course, it’s good to keep the equity focus in mind as we discuss each of these.
This slide provides a brief overview of some of the primary ways that funding may be used…

25. Allowable Uses of Title II, Part A Funding
Materials necessary for professional development;
Salaries for certain personnel (instructional coaches, mentors, professional developers); and
Reducing class sizes
Some additional uses of funding include

26. Equity Applied to Secondary Schools
Analyze teacher quality data at the school level
Number of highly qualified or properly endorsed teachers
In general
For class sections without an endorsed teacher
Number of new teachers, teachers retiring or leaving
Work with the Title II Coordinator and the Director of Human Resources
to expand recruitment efforts,
offer signing bonuses or
to hire teachers earlier than other schools in area
So how can this be applied to secondary schools? Keep in mind that these suggestions are based on what would be written into your division’s Title II, Part A application. However, teacher equity can and should be examined in a broader context than JUST the Title II program in your division.

27. Equity Applied to Secondary Schools
Determine professional development needs
Analyze the effectiveness of current professional development delivery, especially related to poverty and/or diverse student populations
Work with the coordinator of professional development
Hire training staff
Contracted
Full time coaches/mentors
Send teachers to offsite professional learning opportunities
Purchase training material/resources
So how can this be applied to secondary schools? Keep in mind that these suggestions are based on what would be written into your division’s Title II, Part A application.

28. Equity Applied to Secondary Schools
Equity analysis is included within the Title II application
Due July 1st
Requires evidence of analysis and strategy development to address identified inequities
Use funds from other sources or federal funds may be reallocated if data reveals that teacher equity is an issue.

29. QUESTIONS?

30. Contact Information
Tiffany Frierson
Title II/ Title IV Specialist
(804)
Carol Sylvester
Education Coordinator
(804)
Here is our contact information if you have additional questions or comments.
Thank you for your time and attention. Have a great day!
Coordinators' Academy