For additional information, please contact Rudy Careaga, Asst. Director of Programs at rcareaga@nea.org

NEA Foundation Reports

New NEA Foundation Report: “Human Capital: Unions and School Districts Collaborating To Close Achievement Gaps”
NEA Foundation

We are confronted today more urgently than ever before with the need for creating a sustainable system for developing the highest quality teaching in our public schools. This report examines the collaborative development of systems to improve the knowledge and skills of public school educators and leaders.  The report studies the work in the Foundation’s Closing the Achievement Gaps Initiative sites as well as other local initiatives that have been developed with, and not just for, educators.

Full Report

Reducing the Achievement Gap Through District/Union Collaboration: The Tale of Two School Districts
National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future

This report by the National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future (NCTAF) explores the power of collaboration between local unions’ and districts’ efforts to close the achievement gaps. This report highlights the progress, challenges and lessons learned from two districts at the forefront of addressing achievement gaps through collaboration: Hamilton County, TN and Clark County, NV. The strategies employed by these two collaborations and outlined in the report help to ensure that educators remain at the center of reform efforts in their districts and schools.

Funding for this effort was provided by the NEA Foundation.

Full Report
Report Summary

Publications

• Connecting the Bits provides information for integrating technology into teaching and learning in K-12 schools.
• Creating a Teacher Mentoring Program outlines issues and questions that school districts, teacher associations, and universities should consider when developing mentor programs.
• Creating Teacher-Led Professional Development Centers identifies guiding questions and issues to consider when designing teacher-led professional development centers.
• Engaging Public Support for Teachers' Professional Development outlines issues that education employees and advocates should consider when preparing a public engagement effort.
• Using Data about Classroom Practice and Student Work to Improve Professional Development for Educators examines how data analysis can be the focus of teacher learning and how it can help guide sound decision-making about professional development.
• Using Data to Improve Teacher Induction Programs investigates an essential, yet often overlooked, aspect of teacher induction: data collection and analysis to determine results. It also examines the roles that unions, together with school districts and their partners, can play to improve induction programs through better use of data and other strategies.