ARRA Teacher Quality and Incentives

Supporting and Retaining Quality Teachers and Principals

The Improving Teacher Quality grants program is designed to improve academic achievement of students by improving the quality of teachers and school leaders. This program focuses on two broad aspects:

• Increasing the effectiveness of teachers by recruiting and retaining highly qualified teachers; increasing the number of highly qualified teachers in classrooms; and reforming teacher preparation programs
• Increasing the effectiveness of principals by recruiting and retaining highly qualified principals and reforming principal preparation programs

Sample Teachscape Solutions

The distribution of teachers is uneven across states and districts. In some regions, there is a surplus, in others, there is an overall shortage and, in yet others, there is a shortage in specific teaching areas only—typically special education, bilingual education, mathematics, and science. The recruitment and retention of qualified teachers and school leaders is an important issue for two reasons: (1) student learning has been positively correlated with the stability and qualifications of their teachers and school leaders, and (2) hard-to-staff schools, typically those in poor urban districts, often have the least experienced and least qualified teachers working with students with the greatest learning needs. Because all children need and deserve highly qualified and expert teaching, Teachscape is proposing solutions to help you address this compelling problem.