Leading Education Associations Collaborate to Improve Staffing in Needy Schools
Associations Focus on Effective Teachers and Leaders for Poor Schools

For More Information Contact:

Claus von Zastrow, Learning First Alliance: 202-296-5220, x13
Segun Eubanks, National Education Association: 202 822 7339
Joe Villani, National School Boards Association: 703 838-6769

Washington, DC – June 13, 2005 — The Learning First Alliance – a permanent partnership of 12 national education organizations -- today released a report that offers a framework for ensuring the neediest students access to the best teachers and best school leaders.

A Shared Responsibility: Staffing All High-Poverty, Low-Performing Schools with Effective Teachers and Administrators, lays out a comprehensive set of actions to help the nation’s poorest and lowest-performing schools attract and retain the most qualified staff.

"We believe that staffing these schools with high-quality teachers and principals remains one of the most daunting challenges facing our nation,” said Gerald Tirozzi, Alliance Board Chair and Executive Director of the National Association of Secondary School Principals. “This report on the staffing problem and how to address it reflects an unprecedented consensus among educators."

"It is primarily our most vulnerable students— poor and minority youth in cities, suburbs and rural areas alike—who suffer the most from this shortage of high-quality teachers and staff," said Toni Cortese, Executive Vice President of the American Federation of Teachers. "Alliance organizations have created an ambitious, comprehensive blueprint to close this staffing gap and bring our most skilled educators to the students who need them most."

"Principals, teachers and support staff are professionals who respond to opportunities for employment within national, state and local labor markets," said John Wilson, Executive Director of the National Education Association. "Our goal must be to make today’s high-poverty, low-performing schools the kinds of places where our best educators will want to work."

The framework will help educators, policymakers, and community members work together to recruit and retain highly effective teachers and leaders for the neediest schools.

"Through the Learning First Alliance, organizations representing groups as diverse as teachers, principals, school board members, and superintendents have pulled together to tackle a fundamental problem in American education," said Anne Bryant, Executive Director of the National School Boards Association. “Any true solution to this problem requires such broad-based collaboration."

Research cited in the Alliance framework documents serious inequities in access to the most qualified school staff. For example, a study of California teachers found that those teaching in high-minority schools are five times as likely as their peers in low-minority schools to lack full certification. Another study concluded that 70% of math classes in high-poverty middle schools are taught by teachers who have not completed a college major or minor in mathematics or a related field, such as math education or statistics.

The Framework outlines eight areas that require action to improve the ability of high-poverty, low-performing schools to attract and retain effective staff:

• School Leadership: Ensure that high-poverty, low-performing schools have effective leaders;
• Working Conditions: Make the job “doable” with adequate resource staff, manageable class sizes, and a safe, supportive environment free of major plant problems;
• Professional Support: Provide intense teacher support so that teachers succeed in challenging classrooms;
• Incentives: Compensate staff for taking on tougher assignments in high-poverty, low-performing schools. Recognize and reward improvements they make;
• Preparation: Ensure that teachers and leaders are prepared to be effective in high-poverty, low-performing schools;
• Hiring and Placement: Create processes and practices that facilitate the timely hiring and placement of effective teachers in high-need schools;
• Policy Coherence: Establish a coherent set of federal, state, and local policies that promote recruitment and retention of effective teachers for challenged schools;
• Funding: Ensure adequate and equitable funding based on student needs.

Over the coming year, the Learning First Alliance will actively promote substantive collaboration among national organizations, their state and local affiliates, and individual members to address the underlying causes of school staffing inequities.

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Founded in 1997, The Learning First Alliance is a permanent partnership of leading education organizations working together to improve student learning. The Alliance members are: The American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education, American Association of School Administrators, American Federation of Teachers, Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, Council of Chief State School Officers; Education Commission of the States, National Association of Elementary School Principals, National Association of Secondary School Principals, National Association of State Boards of Education, National Education Association, National PTA and the National School Boards Association. Learning First Alliance publications are available on this website.