Until recently, Elkhart Community Schools lacked formal teacher leadership district-wide. The closest implementation historically was department chairs and/or school improvement team members, whose main responsibility was to transfer information between the teaching faculty and administration. In this article, the authors, who are district…

In 2019, National Institute for Excellence in Teaching (NIET) was awarded a grant through the federal Teacher and School Leader (TSL) Incentive Program to expand and sustain work to support teachers and improve students' academic success in three Indiana school districts. TSL grants support districts' human capital management systems, specifically…

Providing teachers with data-driven feedback, aligned professional development and opportunities for advancement may help limit attrition, contribute to more effective teaching, and improve student learning. However, research shows that much of the professional development teachers currently receive does not improve either teacher or student…

An estimated 17% to 30% of new teachers in the U.S. leave the profession within their first 5 years of teaching. Some challenges that prompt new teachers to leave the field include stress, lack of appropriate support, and feeling unprepared to handle behavioral and academic issues among their students. Research supports the finding that teachers…

Our featured leaders saw big gains when their teachers began using formative assessment practice to guide student growth minute-by-minute. Read the fourth article in our five-part series for the scoop on how committing to this high-impact instructional practice paid off for a regional agency, district, and school. Learn: (1) why our featured…

Researchers at NIET and elsewhere have studied the effectiveness of "TAP: The System for Teacher and Student Advancement" (TAP) in raising student achievement, improving the quality of instruction, and increasing the ability of high-need schools to recruit, retain and support effective teachers. This document provides summaries of some…

For over a decade, researchers at NIET [National Institute for Excellence in Teaching] and around the country have studied TAP™: The System for Teacher and Student Advancement. This document summarizes recent internal and external research, including three new studies demonstrating TAP's effectiveness at raising student achievement, improving the…