Addressing Inequities in the Distribution of Highly Qualified and Effective Teachers: A Workshop to Move Research and Policy into Action
Michael Allen, Ph.D.
Stimulus Funding and Educator Equity (Adobe Acrobat PDF 22 KB)
Michael Allen, Ph.D., is the principal of Allen Education, LLC, a Washington, D.C., consulting firm that specializes in education policy and research. His clients include state agencies, national associations and other nonprofit entities, and the federal government. He has worked on projects focusing on mathematics and science education, teacher education, teacher supply and mobility, teacher licensure and assessment, and special education. He is currently directing an NSF-funded project intended to help policymakers and university officials increase their ability to project the need and supply pipeline for science and mathematics teachers in the states. Formerly, he was a senior program officer at the National Research Council, where he directed a congressionally mandated study on teacher preparation, and a senior policy analyst and program director at the Denver-based Education Commission of the States, specializing in issues related to teacher preparation, development, and working conditions, as well as education research. He is the author of many policy publications, including two major reports titled Eight Questions on Teacher Preparation: What Does the Research Say? and Eight Questions on Teacher Recruitment and Retention: What Does the Research Say? A one-time professor of philosophy, Dr. Allen also has published articles on epistemology and a book on nonprofit ethics. He holds a master’s degree in research methods from Charles Sturt University in Australia and master’s and doctoral degrees in philosophy from Boston University.
Jackson Alley
Georgia Professional Standards Commission: Data Systems (Adobe Acrobat PDF 816 KB)
Jackson Alley works as a data analyst for the Georgia Professional Standards Commission (PSC). At the PSC, he has worked to organize and present statewide educational data in an effort to make it more accessible and meaningful to school administrators and policymakers. Prior to working at the PSC, he worked as a research assistant to Dr. Paul S. Herrnson at the University of Maryland’s Center for American Politics and Citizenship. He began his technical support for education as a systems administrator for a State Charter School of Art and Technology where he designed and managed an Open Source computer network for both teachers and students. He is currently pursuing his master’s degree at the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies at Georgia State University and continues to work on bridging the gap between policy and technology.
Donna Carr, Ed.D.
Donna Carr, Ed.D., has an extensive background in education, which includes service as a remedial reading teacher, federal programs coordinator, staff development coordinator, special education director, and district assistant superintendent. She has experience with districts that serve large populations of poor and minority students and English language learners. She has served as a school improvement consultant to several districts. Dr. Carr has written school improvement planning guides and coauthored an article on engagement rates of middle school students for the School Science and Mathematics Journal. Having served as an adjunct faculty member for various colleges in West Virginia, she presently serves as a special member of the graduate faculty of the University of Maryland Eastern Shore and as a consultant for the University of Virginia, Hampton Roads Center. Dr. Carr currently serves as a No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and Title I specialist for the Appalachia Regional Comprehensive Center, a rural specialist for the Rural Education Center at Edvantia, and the Virginia liaison for the Mid-Atlantic Equity Center. Dr. Carr provides technical assistance to help states, districts, and schools increase achievement and close equity gaps. She earned an Ed.D. in educational leadership from West Virginia University.
Robin Chait
Robin Chait is the associate director for teacher quality at the Center for American Progress, where she focuses on teacher quality and high school reform issues, particularly as they affect disadvantaged students. In this position, Chait writes columns and papers, develops legislative proposals, and plans panel discussions and meetings. Prior to joining the Center for American Progress, Chait was an independent consultant and worked with Practical Strategy, LLC, and Cross and Joftus, LLC, to conduct research and write reports for nonprofit organizations and government agencies, including the National Governors Association, the National High School Alliance, the Corporation for National Service, and others. Prior to that, Chait was a D.C Teaching Fellow and third grade teacher in the District of Columbia. In addition, she has taught remedial reading at Maya Angelou Charter School. Chait also served as a program analyst in the U.S. Department of Education’s Planning and Evaluation Service, where she designed and managed evaluations of federal education programs and wrote sections of the congressionally mandated National Assessment of Title I reports and other reports issued by the Department of Education. Chait holds a master’s degree in teaching from American University and a master’s degree in public policy from Georgetown University.
Jane Coggshall, Ph.D.
Behind the Data: A Tool for States to Dig Deeper (Adobe Acrobat PDF 358 KB)
Jane Coggshall, Ph.D., is a research associate at Learning Point Associates. For the National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality (TQ Center), she helps develop print and online resources on educator quality issues for regional and state officials. She authored several TQ Research & Policy Briefs on teacher quality topics and the Communication Framework for Measuring Teacher Quality and Effectiveness. Dr. Coggshall has provided technical assistance to states and regions regarding equitable teacher distribution, teacher effectiveness, and teacher preparation. For Learning Point Associates, she has conducted research on teacher interstate mobility and the impact of professional development. She is the principal investigator on two studies exploring the needs, policy preferences, and potential of Generation Y teachers. Dr. Coggshall has taught middle-level mathematics at the elementary and junior high school levels. Her original research for her doctorate explored state-level reading policy, the use of portfolios for the assessment of beginning teachers, and the local effects of national teacher quality policy. Her dissertation, High School Teacher Assignment and the New Governance of Teacher Quality, won the Lester W. Anderson Memorial Award for best dissertation in secondary school administration. Dr. Coggshall earned her doctoral degree in education studies from the University of Michigan.
Megan Dolan, Ed.D.
Megan Dolan, Ed.D., is a senior research scientist at The George Washington University Center for Equity and Excellence in Education (GW-CEEE) where she is the Maryland state technical assistance coordinator for the Mid-Atlantic Comprehensive Center and the Mid-Atlantic Equity Center (MAEC). Dr. Dolan coordinates with state divisions to ensure that coherent and comprehensive services are targeted to high-needs districts. For MAEC, she collaborates with a team of specialists to provide expert support to districts in Maryland to address equity issues that impact student achievement. She has a broad range of experience developing and providing professional development and technical assistance designed to accelerate achievement for minority and low-income students. Prior to joining GW-CEEE, she was a curriculum coordinator for the Department of Defense PK–12 schools and the associate director for the Region V Area Center for Educational Enhancement at Florida Atlantic University. Dr. Dolan has conducted research on scale-up, capacity building, school improvement policy, and teacher education. She holds a doctor of education degree in curriculum and instruction from Florida Atlantic University.
Laura Goe, Ph.D.
Metrics for Evaluating the Distribution of Teachers (Adobe Acrobat PDF 353 KB)
Laura Goe, Ph.D., is an associate research scientist in the Teaching and Learning Research Center at ETS and is a senior researcher for the National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality. Previously, Dr. Goe was the research director for the Bay Area Consortium for Urban Education at the University of California–Berkeley, where she worked with representatives from school districts as well as two- and four-year colleges and universities in an effort to improve teacher recruitment, preparation, and retention in the Bay Area. She also worked extensively on issues of school finance, accountability, and teacher credentialing and distribution in California. Dr. Goe earned her doctorate from the University of California–Berkeley Policy, Organizations, Measurement, and Evaluation Program. She earned her master’s degree from the University of Memphis Education Leadership and Policy Program.
Jennifer Imazeki, Ph.D.
The Distribution of Highly-Qualified, Experienced Teachers: Challenges and Opportunities (Adobe Acrobat PDF 76 KB)
Jennifer Imazeki, Ph.D., is an associate professor of economics at San Diego State University where she teaches courses in applied microeconomics. She also created a course, Economics for Teachers, for students working toward their single-subject teaching credential in social science. Dr. Imazeki conducts research in the economics of K–12 education, including work on school finance reform and adequacy and teacher labor markets. She worked at the University of Wisconsin–Madison as a researcher for the Consortium for Policy Research in Education and received a Spencer Dissertation Fellowship. She has published several articles in professional journals as well as chapters in a number of books on school finance. She is a member of the American Economic Association and the Association of Public Policy Analysis and Management and recently served on the Board of Directors of the American Education Finance Association. In addition to providing expert assistance for high-profile court cases in Texas and Florida, she has completed studies on adequacy and/or teacher costs in Wisconsin, Illinois, Washington, and California. Most recently, she assisted California Assemblywoman Julia Brownley to develop legislation for comprehensive school finance reform. Dr. Imazeki earned her master’s and doctoral degrees in economics from the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
Brad Jupp
Addressing Inequities in the Distribution of Highly Qualified and Effective Teachers: Status and Discussion (Adobe Acrobat PDF 196 KB)
Brad Jupp is a senior program advisor in the Office of Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. He is on loan to the secretary’s team from the Denver Public Schools (DPS) where for the past 24 years, he has been a teacher, union leader, and senior administrator. His most recent assignment was senior academic policy advisor to Superintendent Michael Bennet. In that role, he shaped district direction in a wide range of fields, including individual, school, and performance management and accountability; school choice, new school development, and school portfolio management; and the management of educator human capital. Prior to that assignment, Jupp spent 19 years as a middle school language arts teacher and an activist in DPS’s teacher union, the Denver Classroom Teachers Association (DCTA). From 1999 to 2005, he led the joint district/union effort to develop and implement the Professional Compensation System for Teachers, ProComp. ProComp is a nationally recognized, path-clearing effort to reform the way teachers are paid so that their annual and career earnings are based, in part, on the academic performance of the students they teach. In his most recent classroom work, Jupp was lead teacher of the DPS Alternative Middle School. There he taught at-risk in Grades 6–8. From 1990 to 2002, he served as the chief negotiator for the DCTA’s bargaining team.
Julie McCargar, Ed.D.
Tennessee's Most Effective Teachers:
Are they assigned to the schools that need them the most? (Adobe Acrobat PDF 77 KB)
Educating Disadvantaged Children:
Focusing Policy for Results (Adobe Acrobat PDF 238 KB)
Julie McCargar, Ed.D., is the executive director of Federal Programs for the Tennessee State Department of Education. In this capacity, she oversees the implementation of the provisions of the NCLB Act in the state, which includes a budget of more than $600 million during the next fiscal year. In her 16-year tenure at the Tennessee State Department of Education, Dr. McCargar has provided leadership in many areas. She was the English as a second language and civil rights consultant and currently serves as Tennessee’s Title I director. She has expertise in the areas of business/community/school partnerships, equitable distribution of teacher quality, and reforming struggling schools. Her doctoral dissertation focused on the correlation of school characteristics, such as teacher mobility rate and teacher certification status, with student academic achievement and growth in Title I schools. Previously, Dr. McCargar worked as a teacher and teacher trainer both in the United States and overseas. She was the 2008 president of the National Title I Association. Dr. McCargar earned her master’s degree in education from the State University of New York–Buffalo and her doctorate in education from Tennessee State University, where she studied teacher equity issues in high-poverty schools for her doctoral dissertation.
Tiffany Miller, Ph.D.
Equitable Distribution: Aligning Strategies With Needs (Adobe Acrobat PDF 148 KB)
Tiffany Miller, Ph.D., is an education program consultant in the Title II Leadership Office at the California Department of Education, where she plays a significant role in strategic planning and policy development within California’s Title II Program. Dr. Miller taught middle school mathematics and science in Reno, Nevada, for five years. She is a leader in the state of California on issues related to equitable distribution and teacher quality. Dr. Miller holds a doctorate in curriculum and instruction.
Cortney Rowland
Cortney Rowland is a senior policy associate in educator quality at Learning Point Associates. Her work focuses on alternative compensation, teacher evaluation, and recruiting and retaining high-quality teachers for at-risk and hard-to-staff schools. Rowland serves as the coordinator of policy products and services for the National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality (TQ Center). In this role, she provides technical assistance and consultation to regional comprehensive centers and states on educator quality policy issues. She also participates in the development and dissemination of print and online products and resources for the TQ Center. In addition, Rowland leads the contributions of Learning Point Associates to the national Center for Educator Compensation Reform by coordinating content development, policy analysis, and dissemination efforts. She also is the principal investigator for two evaluation projects in Iowa: one that focuses on improving teacher preparation and one that focuses on alternative compensation. Rowland has presented and facilitated discussions at numerous forums and conferences as well as authored or coauthored several publications for a variety of audiences. She earned her master’s degree in sociology from Bowling Green State University in Ohio and is working on a doctoral degree in sociology at Loyola University–Chicago.
