People
Closing the achievement gap between minority and white students, and between low-income students and their wealthier peers, will require us to dramatically improve teacher quality, particularly in underserved communities. As such, the NewSchools Innovation Fund will create a new market of performance-based educator training providers, in which quality and success are measured by impact on student achievement. Unlike the current degree-based system of defining merit, NewSchools believes that quality teaching should be defined in terms of student achievement, wherein all students make at least one year’s worth of academic progress in each school year. In order to make this shift, there must be a clear demonstration that teachers can consistently produce annual student achievement gains of at least one year early in their career, as well as strong linkages between the selection processes, preparation approaches, and school and system-level supports that foster consistently outstanding teaching.
Recognizing that the context in which teachers work is also powerfully important, this fund will also build and expand sources of non-teaching talent that drive student achievement in low-income schools – including principals, instructional leaders, and others who either directly impact students or who leverage teaching talent and accelerate student learning. Ultimately, we believe that this work will lead to a paradigm shift in which quality teaching comes to be defined in terms of student learning, and highlights the appropriate structures and supports that maximize teacher effectiveness.