Jeff Bingaman United States Senator from New Mexico

Mr. BINGAMAN. Mr. President, I rise today to introduce the Enhancing Teaching Standards and License Portability Act of 2007. This bill would encourage the development and implementation of rigorous 21st century teaching standards throughout the U.S.

Since the release of the 1983 report, A Nation at Risk, educators and policymakers have sought to strengthen our Nation's weakening grip on global competitiveness. Despite these efforts, low achievement outcomes for too many students, particularly low income students, remain a threat to our current and future standing in the global economy, and to our children's future security. I am concerned about the continuing struggles of many of our schools. 

In order to graduate from high school ready to succeed in postsecondary education and the workforce, students need a world-class 21st century education. Their success depends on access to high quality teachers who have both state-of-the-art content knowledge and excellent teaching skills. Teachers deserve access to the most up-to-date teaching standards if they are to attain these professional criteria. Moreover, assessments of quality teaching must be based on the characteristics that are known to influence student achievement outcomes. 

The Enhancing Teaching Standards and License Portability Act provides the commitment and resources needed to help teachers attain these 21st century teaching skills. 

In the early 1990s, the Interstate New Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium, INTASC, developed core teaching standards for beginning teachers, standards that have since been used--voluntarily--by individual States to develop teaching and certification requirements. Professional organizations such as the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics also developed subject-area teaching standards. This bill would build upon these efforts to improve teacher quality by supporting the refinement, development, and testing of K-12 teaching standards aligned with demands of the 21st century. These demands reflect content area advances in subject areas such as science and technology; advances in understanding of how students learn; the principle of universal design for learning that advocates flexible teaching to accommodate different learning styles; educators' recognition of the need to foster critical thinking, creativity, and problem-solving skills in addition to subject area knowledge; and demographic changes in student diversity such as the recent dramatic increase in English-language learners and the increased inclusion of students with disabilities in the classroom. 

Specifically, this bill would provide a funding mechanism to develop or refine 21st century teaching standards, and to link those standards to performance-based teacher assessments. It would also provide subgrants to states to adopt, pilot, and implement these teaching standards and associated teacher assessments, and align their teacher licensing systems accordingly. In addition, the bill would promote and facilitate reciprocity and portability of teaching licenses across states. I am very pleased that this bill is supported by several education groups devoted to enhancing the quality and coherence of teaching standards, including the Council of Chief State School Officers, the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education, the National Association of Secondary School Principals, the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, the International Reading Association, the National Science Teachers Association, and the National Commission on Teaching and America's Future. 

I believe it is important to acknowledge that we have made some progress in improving teacher quality. As summarized in the Secretary of Education's Fifth Annual Report on Teacher Quality, the percentage of teachers who lack a full teaching certificate has declined, from 3.3 to 2.5 percent of all classroom teachers. Progress has also been reported in aligning States' K-12 student content standards with teacher certification standards; and the number of new teachers passing required State assessment exams remains high at 95 percent. The minimum examination scores required to pass these exams, however, are generally lower than the national median scores for these assessments. Such low criteria are in conflict with the NCLB definition of a highly qualified teacher as someone with demonstrated competence in content-area subject matter. Current teacher standards fail to demonstrate, much less ensure, this competency. 

Researchers have demonstrated the importance of teacher competency for student outcomes, arguing that classroom practices and other aspects of teaching affect student achievement as much as, if not more than, student characteristics. A recent Education Week report revealed that teachers who score higher vs. lower on state licensing exams tend to have students who themselves achieve higher scores, particularly in mathematics, even when other factors linked to high achievement are taken into account. Other studies demonstrate that the more content-specific college coursework a math or science teacher pursues prior to teaching, the higher that teacher's students will score in math or science. Further, a study appearing in Science showed that higher student outcomes are also associated with more positive classroom experiences, and that these classroom experiences can be measured by standardized observations of the instructional and social support teachers provide. Together, these and other studies illustrate that teachers' knowledge and their observable skills in the classroom are significant influences on student achievement. 

Although solid grounding in content knowledge is necessary for 21st century learners, it alone is not sufficient. Students today need to develop creativity, critical thinking skills, and problem solving abilities to compete in our global economy. This means that teachers must teach higher-order thinking skills in addition to content information, and create opportunities to learn. Research has shown that students of teachers who can convey higher-order thinking skills and subject knowledge actually outperform students whose teachers teach only subject knowledge. 

As you know, Mr. President, students in the 21st century represent diversity. For example, the U.S. Department of Education reports that the rate of English-language learners has increased by 169 percent in the last 20 years, in contrast to an increase of only 12 percent in the overall student population. Nationwide, 10 percent of all students are English-language learners. In my state of New Mexico, the rate is 22 percent, second only to California, where over 25 percent of students are English-language learners. According to the National Academies Report, How People Learn, teachers need to develop an expertise grounded on the theories of learning, including theories that concern how cultural beliefs and personal characteristics of learners influence their learning process. This teaching knowledge promotes learning for all children. In fact, students whose teachers receive professional development in teaching diverse students outperform students of teachers who lack this training. 

These are just a few examples of the research linking student outcomes to teacher characteristics. Linking these characteristics to rigorous teaching performance standards is an opportunity to provide world class education to our students in the 21st century. It is time to improve our teaching standards. 

Towards this goal, the Enhancing Teaching Standards and License Portability Act has four main objectives. 

First, to improve teacher quality by supporting the development of rigorous kindergarten through grade 12 teaching standards that incorporate 21st century teaching and learning skills, and to promote alignment of these standards with performance-based teacher assessments;

Second, to create incentives for States to adopt, pilot, and implement such rigorous kindergarten through grade 12 teaching standards and performance-based teacher assessments through a competitive grants process; 

Third, to promote efforts for States to align these teaching standards and performance-based teacher assessments to State licensing requirements; and 

Finally, to create incentives for States to develop policies that would facilitate license reciprocity and portability. 

Although this bill would not mandate that model teaching standards be adopted by the states, the trends demonstrate that widespread adoption is likely. For instance, after INTASC developed model teaching standards in 1992, 38 States adopted the standards in developing their own statewide standards. Over 20 States are reviewing the NCTM Curriculum Focal Points to develop mathematics curriculum standards. Over 22 States currently rely on the same standardized teaching credentialing test, and another 10 adopt a second widely available test. The availability of model 21st century teaching standards could have a profound influence on K-12 education nationwide, and this bill would provide incentives for States to adopt and test these standards. 

An added benefit of available model teaching standards concerns reciprocal teacher certification across States, which could address teacher shortages and curriculum cohesion across states. Nationally, about 20 percent of teachers seek their initial license in a state other than where they completed their teacher training. This bill would improve the capacity of States to collaboratively address teacher shortages through increased teacher certification reciprocity, by promoting alignment of the teaching standards with State licensing systems. 

Finally, the availability of widely used model standards would support a platform for horizontal coherence of teaching and curriculum standards. A State's voluntary use of updated rigorous standards would promote core similarities that offer additional benefits for mobile students who suffer setbacks when faced with inconsistent curriculum. 

Student mobility, defined as the percentage of students who transfer in or out of a school during a given school year, occurs in both inner-city and suburban school districts. Rates in inner city schools range from 45 to as high as 80 percent. In suburban schools, mobility rates may be as high as 10 to 40 percent. Although overall mobility indices in the U.S. are not rising, the percentage of moves that occur across state lines has increased from approximately 16 to 19 percent since 2000. When children change schools, they often must adapt to a different curriculum; and lack of curriculum cohesion is believed to account for several negative consequences. Children who experience several school changes are more likely to receive below-grade level reading and math achievement scores than their peers who have never changed schools; they are also more prone to grade retention, and have an increased high school dropout rate. 

I believe this legislation can go a long way in improving our Nation's educational achievement rates by improving teacher quality and licensing portability. I also believe that this legislation is critical to strengthening our global competitiveness because quality teaching is a route to helping students meet high standards. I hope that this legislation will be included in the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, as amended, and I urge my colleagues to support this legislation.