Jeffrey J. Kuenzi
Specialist in Education Policy
The Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA) is the primary legislative vehicle for federal policymaking regarding teachers and instructional quality in the nation’s elementary and secondary schools. Authorization for ESEA programs and policies, enacted through the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB), expired at the end of FY2008 and the 113th Congress is likely to consider whether to amend and extend the ESEA. Notable ESEA provisions concerning K-12 teaching include requirements for minimum teacher qualifications and authority for a teacher training and class size reduction program funded at roughly $3 billion.
The size of the teaching workforce and diversity of the teaching workplace present many challenges to federal policymakers. The workforce of roughly 4 million teachers in the U.S. are both aging and “greening”—with well over one-third (37%) on the job for over 15 years and an equal share (36%) having taught less than four years in their current school. The teaching workplace of about 14,000 school districts nationwide is a highly dynamic one—with certain schools experiencing high rates of staff turnover each year and many schools instituting major reforms of teacher evaluation procedures.
The federal role in K-12 teacher policy has evolved rapidly since passage of NCLB. Federal policy has historically focused mainly on in-service training (or professional development). This focus began to change as the 105th Congress tripled funding for federal teacher programs by enacting a hiring program known as Class Size Reduction. With NCLB, the focus of federal policy moved squarely to the issue of teacher quality. The law mandated that all “core” subjectmatter teachers possess minimum qualifications including a bachelor’s degree, full state certification, and subject-matter knowledge. More recently, the focus of federal policy in this area has shifted to teacher effectiveness, particularly with passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), which authorized the Race to the Top program. Legislative action in the 112th Congress, including bills passed by authorizing committees in both chambers, also contained provisions that would continue federal involvement in state and local efforts to evaluate teacher effectiveness.
At the present time, the Department of Education (ED) administers a dozen programs that support elementary and secondary school teachers and instructional quality. By far the largest of these, both in terms of appropriations and number of teachers served, is authorized in Part A of Title II of the ESEA—the Teacher and Principal Training and Recruiting Fund. In FY2013, this program provided roughly $3 billion primarily for teacher professional development to support meeting the NCLB highly qualified-teacher requirement. The second and third largest federal teacher programs are Race to the Top ($550 million in FY2013, though not all funds are used to improve teaching) and the Teacher Incentive Fund ($300 million in FY2013). Both of these programs support improved teacher effectiveness, the former through teacher evaluation reform and the latter by providing pay compensation to high-performing teachers.
If the 113th Congress considers reauthorizing the ESEA, teacher effectiveness will likely continue to be central to this discussion. Other issues of importance include compensation and high-stakes school staffing decision-making, distributional equity across schools and districts, teacher preparation programs—both traditional and alternative—and professional development.
Date of Report: May 8, 2013
Number of Pages: 31
Order Number: R41267
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