Prepared and effective educators for all.
The Coalition for Teaching Quality (CTQ) is a coalition of national civil rights, disability, parent, student, community, and education organizations advocating together to ensure that all students have access to well-prepared and effective teachers and school leaders.
WHAT WE BELIEVE
Teaching is the profession that all other professions rely on, and federal policy should treat it as such. Recruitment, no to low cost comprehensive preparation, induction and mentoring, ongoing professional learning, paths to accomplished practice and teacher-leadership, and strong school leadership form a continuum that require strong investment at each stage.
Students must be assigned fully prepared and fully certified educators. Comprehensive teacher preparation before becoming a teacher of record or a school principal and being fully certified for what one is teaching and the role of principal are baseline requirements , not aspirations. When these requirements are not met , the response should be to build capacity, not to lower standards, which often result in , placing students with teachers who have not completed a teacher preparation program and/or are not fully certified to teach. The federal government has a key equity and funding role to play to guarantee that all students are taught by fully prepared and certified teachers.
Federal law should protect the students least likely to have a fully prepared teacher. Low-income students, students of color, students with disabilities, English learners, and students in rural communities bear the shortage. These patterns are derived from policy choices and can be changed by policy choices.
Stronger federal funding and effort to close gaps in access to a high-quality educator workforce is needed. The Elementary and Secondary Education Act’s main program for educators’ preparation and ongoing professional development (Title II-A ) is funded well below where it stood fifteen years ago. Programs that prepare educators for high-demand specialties, including special education, the STEM fields, and more, and for teaching and leading in underserved districts and their public schools are funded at a fraction of demand. The provision of technical assistance and research-based practices are lacking. We advocate for increased funding for research-based programs, enforcement of key educator quality and access requirements, stronger technical assistance, ongoing research and the dissemination of research-based practices, and better data. We oppose efforts to undermine or defund research-based programs that support a quality educator workforce.
WHAT WE DO
Collective advocacy.
CTQ mobilizes member organizations to advocate for federal programs, policies, funding, and other efforts to ensure all students have access to a high-quality educator workforce.
Consensus positions.
Member organizations adopt shared positions on federal legislation, appropriations, and regulatory action.
Sign-on letters and testimony.
CTQ mobilizes member organizations to advocate for federal programs, policies, funding, and other efforts to ensure all students have access to a high-quality educator workforce.
Analysis for policymakers and press.
CTQ publishes fact sheets and issue analyses on federal educator workforce programs, the statutory protections that govern them, and their effects on students.
CURRENT PRIORITIES
Increased appropriations for federal programs that support the educator workforce.
Additional legislative protections for Congressionally funded educator programs so that funding reaches programs and ultimately students and cannot be terminated for partisan or political reasons
An effective, well-run, and well-staffed Department of Education that helps fulfill the mission that all children have access to a high-quality educator workforce.
Protection of ESEA and IDEA requirements on educator certification, equitable access, and public reporting