Priorities for Members & Affiliates

Potential Teachers

Collaborate to develop and co-sponsor future teacher programs such as Educators Rising with learning experiences or coursework aligned with Educators Rising’s 2016 standards. Recommended collaborators: Schools/Districts, TPPs

Jointly lobby for resources to improve professional level of salaries throughout teacher careers. Recommended collaborators: Schools/Districts

Collaboratively bargain for contract improvements and lobby for changes in policies that negatively impact teacher working conditions and career stability. Recommended collaborators: Schools/Districts

Ensure that every PreK-12 student — regardless of socioeconomic status, geographic location, race, gender, or other personal characteristic — has access to a challenging and broad curriculum that includes: access to upper-level coursework; specialized programs of interest to individual students; and 21st century skills that foster creativity and problem solving, and open a full range of postsecondary opportunities. Recommended collaborators: Teachers, Schools/Districts, TPPs, External Partners/Community, Policymakers

Ensure that teaching and learning experienced by PreK-12 students engages them with authentic experiences, community connections, and opportunities to choose the content and kinds of demonstrations of mastery that best represent their individual learning styles. Recommended collaborators: Teachers, Schools/Districts, TPPs, External Partners/Community, Policymakers

Aspiring Teachers

Collaborate in the design, implementation, evaluation, and improvement of TPPs. Use recommendations from NEA’s 2014 “Teacher Residencies” as a guide for design. Include elements such as:

• Ensure candidates explore the range of experiences both within PreK-12 classrooms and beyond to be “profession ready” upon program completion.

• Ensure cooperating teachers have the teaching skills and abilities to positively foster professional growth for the aspiring teachers with whom they work.

• Provide ongoing training for cooperating teachers, give them feedback on their work in those roles, and gather feedback from them about programs.

• Collaboratively and purposefully pair candidates with cooperating teachers.

• Integrate cooperating teachers as faculty within the TPP.

• Provide compensation for additional expertise and responsibilities of serving as cooperating teacher.

• Use professional/accomplished PreK-12 teachers more broadly in TPP roles in schools and on campus.

• Ensure that TPP faculty also have recent, relevant PreK-12 experience.

• Focus programs on preparing candidates to meet the needs of every student through culturally responsive practice and sensitivity to student differences including race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation/gender identification, disability, religious beliefs, residence, and primary language.

Recommended collaborators: Schools/Districts, TPPs

Partner with PreK-12 schools to provide academic support to promising candidates needing assistance. Programs must model culturally responsive teaching and best practices in authentic learning environments. Recommended collaborators: Schools/Districts, TPPs

Develop and implement extensive experiences for candidates to work with parents, families, and in the community, within the school and beyond. Recommended collaborators: Schools/Districts, TPPs, External Partners/Community

Ensure candidates develop the knowledge, skills, and dispositions to meaningfully engage parents in the teaching/learning process and to develop learning experiences that are culturally responsive to, and honor the background of, each student. Recommended collaborators: Schools/Districts, TPPs, External Partners/Community

Collaboratively develop and implement experiences to help aspiring teachers build positive connections with the communities where they work and for schools, unions, and communities to provide support for the psychological, cultural, and emotional needs of the aspiring teacher. Recommended collaborators: Teachers, Schools/Districts, TPPs, External Partners/Community

Create a network of preparation programs, schools, and districts sharing successful TPP practices and fostering collaboration across all partners. Recommended collaborators: Schools/Districts, TPPs

Lead partners in setting national standards for “profession readiness” of candidates, and development and use of a performance assessment of candidate readiness.

Bargain for additional compensation for cooperating teachers commensurate with their specialized knowledge, training, and increased responsibilities. Recommended collaborators: Schools/Districts

Use the NEA Student Program to connect candidates with the role of the union in teacher quality and meeting needs of PreK-12 students.

Emerging Teachers

Collaboratively bargain for and implement research-based new teacher induction processes with the following characteristics:

• New teachers receive frequent mentoring and coaching in their areas of interest and in areas where they need improvement, for at least two years.

• Mentors/coaches have the teaching skills and abilities to positively foster professional growth for the emerging teachers with whom they work.

• Mentors/coaches receive ongoing professional development for their roles and are carefully matched to their mentees’ teaching assignments and needs.

• Support is offered in tiers that match the emerging teacher’s developmental needs.

• New teachers’ responsibilities are modified to address the demands of beginning a new career.

• Mentors, coaches, and new teachers have time during the contract day to perform the conferencing, etc., for the program.

• New teachers receive ongoing, meaningful feedback on performance and areas for improvement.

• New teacher evaluations are tiered to match developmental level and align with support for skill development.

Recommended collaborators: Schools/Districts

Collaboratively develop and implement experiences to help emerging teachers build positive connections with the communities where they work. Recommended collaborators: Schools/Districts, TPPs, External Partners/Community

Collaboratively develop and implement programs to support the psychological, cultural, and emotional needs of emerging teachers — particularly those from underrepresented groups — during induction. Recommended collaborators: Schools/Districts, TPPs, External Partners/Community

Collaboratively bargain for, develop, implement, monitor, and adjust a research-based peer review evaluation system. Establish a culture that trusts the fairness of the evaluation system. Extend the evaluation system to include targeted professional development support for teachers struggling to meet performance standards. Recommended collaborators: Schools/Districts

Lead partners in establishing national standards for professional licensure of emerging teachers, and development and use of performance assessment (e.g., a portfolio of artifacts demonstrating essential knowledge and skills).

Professional Teachers

Collaboratively bargain for and implement professional development programs that align with Learning Forward (2011) standards and include the following characteristics:

• Each teacher participates in non-evaluative peer coaching and peer observation.

• Teachers collaborate in developing group goals (department, grade level, school).

• Each teacher has autonomy to set and pursue professional growth goals.

• Time during the school day and other resources are provided (over several months) for learning and development of any professional skill.

• Targeted support is provided for pursuit of National Board Certification and other demonstrations of accomplished practice.

• Targeted support is provided for developing teacher leadership skills.

• Teachers are encouraged to engage in action research, individually and in groups.

• Networking is encouraged both within and between departments and grades, and beyond the school and district.

Recommended collaborators: Schools/Districts

Collaboratively bargain for, develop, implement, monitor, and adjust a trusted system of evaluation via peer-review. (Extended from Emerging Teacher career phase.) Recommended collaborators: Schools/Districts

Provide professional learning opportunities to foster teacher excellence and teacher leadership development

Accomplished Teachers

Collaborate in the development and use of local (department, grade, school) and virtual networks of teachers to serve as networked improvement communities. Recommended collaborators: Schools/Districts, TPPs

Extend the system of professional supports from the professional phase to include accomplished and teacher leader phases. Recommended collaborators: Schools/Districts

Continue the Teacher Leadership Initiative. Help locals, states, and consortia to implement teacher leadership programs to foster Association leadership development and teacher leaders for other roles in schools.

Encourage the use of accomplished teachers deemed to have crucial leadership skills in various roles as representatives of the teaching profession. Encourage involvement in Association leadership roles.

Teacher Leaders

Collaboratively bargain for and institute positions for teacher leadership that continue to provide teaching connection through hybrid assignments or defined periods of full-time release from classroom teaching.

Bargain for compensation and working conditions for teacher leaders in positions with special expertise or extended responsibilities. Recommended collaborators: Schools/Districts

Lead work with partners to define standards and skills for teacher leadership roles and to develop and use performance-based assessments of these skills.