Delaware Human Capital/Educator Effectiveness: Strategic Plan, 2014-2017A Plan to Guide the Delaware Department of Education on TLEU-related work from 2014-2017

December 2013 DRAFT #4

INTRODUCTION

Over the past three years, Delaware has earned a national reputation as an education innovator. From the scope of its Round One $119 million Race to the Top award, to its engagement of educators in evaluation design and assessment development, to the alignment of its political, education, and civic leadership, the state is mentioned routinely as an exemplar of thoughtful and ambitious education policy-making.

One of the cornerstones of the Delaware Department of Educations (DOE) reform efforts is ensuring an effective teacher in every classroom and an effective leader in every schoolhouse. This goal drives much of what DOE undertakes, from providing outstanding assessments and curricular resources to building robust data systems that give teachers a more complete picture of their students to developing tools to measure educators effectiveness, the Department has been high-quality instructional practice at the center of its agenda. This includes leading the charge in educator prep program reform, supporting innovative talent pipelines, publishing human capital data, and launching statewide structures (PLCs, e.g.) that provide forums and networks for the exchange of best practices.

Delaware is perhaps one of the best-positioned states in the nation to adopt these strategies: With just over 200 schools, a tight-knit community of educators, and coordinated policy leadership, the DOE in Delaware can assume a hybrid role that few state agencies can, where direct support and understanding of school contexts can be coupled with policy pressures

Still, many challenges exist. For example a the recent release of the states Educator Effectiveness Diagnostic found that: [footnoteRef:1] [1: Strategic Data Project Human Capital Diagnostic. Center on Education Policy Research, Harvard University. January 25, 2013 ]

New teachers leave more quickly: Two out of three new teachers, on average, leave their school by their fourth year. One out of every three new teachers, on average, leaves Delaware entirely after four years. High-needs schools turn over teachers at a faster rate: On average, nearly 45 percent of teachers have left a high-needs school after four years, compared with 58 percent in all other schools. Delawares neediest students might not be interacting with top talent: On average, high-needs schools have 60 percent of their teachers rated exceeds or satisfactory on their Component V Measure A ratings, versus 76 percent in all other schools. Overall school performance in Delawares highest-need schools (and subgroups) continues to lag behind state averages.

The DOE office leading the work of ensuring top-quality teachers across Delaware, the Teacher and Leader Effectiveness Unit (TLEU), was created as part of Race to the Top. Its portfolio has expanded as Delaware (along with nearly half the states in the nation) have strengthened efforts to evaluate teachers and leaders, including measurements of student growth, as a way of identifying and increasing the number of excellent teachers. Similar units exist in other leading states such as Rhode Island, Colorado, Louisiana, and North Carolina, where a team of people (usually led by a Chief Talent Officer or similar role) focuses on the entire human capital continuum from recruitment to retention.

As Delaware knows, focusing solely on educator evaluation will not realize the states vision of ensuring an effective teacher in every classroom, or helping teachers gain the knowledge and skills they need to help students learn. To reach that goal, the TLEU, the DOE, state LEAs and the entire Delaware education community must seek change in many other areas of the educator effectiveness continuum starting from before a prospective teacher or school leader enters a preparation program to when he or she is a mid-career in a role, an experienced professional in a position to mentor and lead peers in their own development, or serving in a school or district leadership position.

The Delaware Human Capital 2017 plan proposes how DDOE can address all parts of the human capital continuum over the next 3-4 years through a targeted set of strategies and activities built on the changes Delaware launched under Race to the Top (RTTT). The proposed plan sets forth four key strategies, activities to carry them out, and metrics to measure whether the effort succeeds. In addition, the proposal presents options for staffing and budgeting for the TLEU to transform it from a start-up office to an efficient, customer service-driven entity that responds to the field and focuses on results.

The current plan draft is the product of six months worth of planning involving the following:

Strategy sessions with leadership from TLEU, Secretary of Education Mark Murphy, and Governor Markells education policy advisor Review of Delawares commitments in Race to the Top and the Elementary and Secondary Education Flexibility Waiver, as well as current Delaware state policies and regulations concerning teacher effectiveness Interviews of TLEUs peer offices in other leading state education departments Development of activities and metrics for each area of focus Budget and staffing forecasts based on current structures and forecasts for the next 3-4 years.

Education First, a national education policy and consulting firm, collaborated with the TLEU in the strategy sessions and synthesized the development of the plans activities and metrics. The TLEU also sought counsel from leading national experts in the field of human capital. This document is a summary of the plans first draft. The full first draft is a Power Point presentation and contains more details about Delawares current context, the national landscape analysis that informed the plan, and about the activities and metrics themselves. DDOE/TLEU leadership will be working to finalize and vet the plan, including ensuring the right set of activities and metrics, before it takes effect in 2014.THEORY OF ACTION

The proposed plans theory of action suggests that if DDOE/TLEU undertakes four overarching strategies, then it will meet key educator effectiveness milestones that will help the state reach its ultimate goals:

DDOE/TLEU will focus on four overarching strategies:

1. Talent Cultivation: Help build and identify great preparation programs that cultivate talent and equip teachers and leaders with the knowledge and skills necessary for success on day one; recruit/select top talent2. Talent Development and Management: Manage and grow great teachers and leaders currently working in Delaware classrooms and schools3. Building Capacity: Build capacity within LEAs so that they have a professional, strategic, highly functional team that focuses on educator effectiveness4. HC Data Analytics: Unearth insights within and across the SEA and LEAs and disseminate information to improve educator effectiveness practices Focus on these strategies will lead to success in educator effectiveness as defined by certain top-line metrics:

1. A credible distribution of Delaware's educator performance2. Increased job satisfaction among educators3. Increased teacher retention (overall, high-needs schools, first five years, of exceeds teachers, teachers of color)4. Increased achievement in targeted areas in HN schools5. % of educators passing a rigorous exit exam/assessment prior to Day 1 of serviceSuccess in educator effectiveness will help the state achieve its overall student achievement goals:

1. Higher student achievement that shows students ready to compete in global economy2. Close persistent achievement gaps between low-income students and their more affluent peers3. Prepare students to enroll in and persist through higher education

The work of teacher & leader effectiveness does not exist in a vacuum; it operates as a leading actor on a crowded stage. In addition to schools, districts, charter schools, and school boards, there are higher education institutions, teacher preparation programs, non-profits, advocacy groups, community organizations, alternative-certification programs, think tanks, technical assistance providers, other partners and other divisions within DOE whose participation along the human capital continuum matters.

Many state education agencies (SEAs) and their individual offices, such as TLEU, have operated as the focal points of change during previous reform movements. In this plan, TLEU will move gradually from a top-down role to a supportive foundation role, with districts and charters becoming the focal points of change, and partners taking on roles and activities aligned with the states agenda. This shift will happen over time as the most crucial elements of Delawares reform agenda become second nature to teachers, schools, and LEAs:

THE HUMAN CAPITAL CONTINUUM: HOW WE CONCEPTUALIZE EDUCATOR EFFECTIVENESS IN DELAWARE

The factors that influence educators impact on student outcomes are not confined to the four walls of a classroom, or even a school building. They include considerations such as their preparation program, how they were identified as being ready to serve our students, how (or whether) they were mentored in their first three years, what support they receive to grow as professionals, and what leadership roles exist for them early on and later in their careers. All of these factors line up as components on the human capital continuum, or the broad touch points over the course of an educators career. This plan posits that changes to no single element along the human capital continuum can be solely responsible for producing great teachers. (And many in-school factors that are not part of the continuum at all also play a role.)

The TLE in TLEU Teacher and Leader Effectiveness is not confined to administering the new DPAS II (Delaware Performance Appraisal System) evaluation. Stronger evaluations with clearer feedback are a critical priority and are an important place to start. Now, Delaware and TLEU leaders who drive the work need to build on this foundation and improve other continuum factors influencing educators professional lives and success, from the quality of preparation programs, to the criteria for licensure and hiring, to the roles of teacher-leaders in mentoring and supporting other educators.

Applying the theory of action described above, TLEU envisions the work along the continuum in this way:

SUMMARY OF THE DELAWARE HUMAN CAPITAL 2017 PLAN

Along the human capital continuum, TLEU envisions a robust set of activities broken into three categories:

Standards: TLEU actions that lead to programmatic requirements, policy change, or regulations Supports: TLEU actions that build capacity or provide training and/or technical assistance to LEAs, programs, and partners to meet higher expectations Pressures: TLEU actions that involve public dissemination of data, monitoring of school/district implementation, or shifting prevailing ideologies around educator effectiveness through public engagement to focus on outcomes and drive change

At a high level, the plan estimates that the financial, staffing, and policy lift over the next four years for each component will be as follows:

The proposed activities will be staged over time, and some could begin or end earlier than others. For a complete timeline, see the full proposed Human Capital 2017 plan presentation in Power Point.

TALENT CULTIVATION

TALENT DEVELOPMENT AND MANAGEMENT Gov. Markell 2013 legislative agenda

Gov. Markell 2013 legislative agenda

The ultimate measure of whether the plan is successful will be whether student outcomes improve (as detailed in the third column of the Theory of Change on page 3). Along the way, however, TLEU has created second- and third-level metrics to measure the impact of its activities:

TALENT CULTIVATION METRICS

TALENT DEVELOPMENT AND MANAGEMENT METRICS

Achieving these metrics by undertaking the preceding pages activities will require sustained resources human, financial, and otherwise. While working with partners is embedded in many of the activities in the continuum, the Department must build its own capacity to launch and monitor the activities before the work transitions to partners, districts, charters, and schools.

CONCLUSION

The wave of reforms undertaken in Delaware since 2010 has launched exciting new and powerful work to ensure an effective teacher in every Delaware classroom with highly-talented school leaders at the center of improvement efforts. Delawares size and commitment of political and civic leaders has created a productive climate that is focused on improving the states public schools not just for some, but for all.

To harness that change, the Teacher and Leader Effectiveness Unit (TLEU) of the state Department of Education also must evolve. It should prioritize its work around four overarching strategies attracting and training excellent teachers, developing/managing them once in Delawares schools, building the capacity of districts/charters, and monitoring human capital in correlation with student outcome data. It should also be staffed and funded appropriately to undertake some of the most vexing challenges facing the national education community today. With Race to the Top funding set to end in Summer 2014/Summer 2015, the time to start planning for carrying out these strategies is now.

This draft of the Delaware Human Capital 2017 plan attempts to specify the breadth and depth of the plan for DDOE. In 2013, the focus should be on refining the plans activities and metrics with DOE leadership, sharing the plan with selected stakeholders, and building the financial and staffing infrastructure so the plan can launch in Fall 2013. The central question throughout this refinement process should remain the same as it was during RTTT planning and this plans conception: How do we ensure educator effectiveness for every student in Delaware?1 | Page