Presenter: Sabrina Laine, National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality and Learning Point Associates

The highly qualified requirements for teachers in No Child Left Behind (NCLB) were established to create a standard baseline for teacher qualifications. The next step will be to establish criteria for standardizing teacher effectiveness. This opening session will be a discussion of this emerging shift.
Presenter: M. René Islas, B & D Consulting

This session will provide the opportunity for participants to engage in facilitated discussion around the role of the regional comprehensive centers, state education agencies, and national organizations in navigating the shift from highly qualified to highly effective teachers.
Facilitator: Tricia Coulter, National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality and Education Commission of the States (ECS)

1. National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality Tools
   National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality maintains a number of online tools and resources that will inform and enhance teacher quality work within the states. This session will provide an introduction and brief tutorial on some of these resources such as the Teaching Quality (TQ) Source and the NCLB Highly Qualified Teacher database.
   Presenters: Tricia Coulter, National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality and ECS; Cortney Rowland, National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality and Learning Point Associates

2. Conducting a Teacher Quality Gap Analysis
   The Teacher Quality Gap Analysis Framework can help states identify their highest priority challenges across the teacher career continuum to facilitate the allocation of resources. This session will provide an introduction and brief tutorial on the use of this tool.
   Presenters: Amy Jackson, National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality and Learning Point Associates; Gretchen Weber, National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality and Learning Point Associates

3. From Planning to Action: Implementing the Highly Qualified Teacher Plans
   This session will address the implementation of the equitable teacher distribution requirement within each state Highly Qualified Teacher plan as well as state timelines and the monitoring by the U.S. Department of Education.
   Presenters: Julie Coplin, U.S. Department of Education; Laura Goe, National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality and ETS
   Facilitator: Sabrina Laine, National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality and Learning Point Associates

States and the federal government are increasingly looking for methods of assessing teachers that includes some measure of effectiveness. This session will include discussion on how to define and assess effectiveness in teachers from several different perspectives.
Presenters: Laura Goe, National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality and ETS; Heather Peske, The Education Trust; Tom Shepley, Principal, Baltimore Public Schools
Facilitators: Carol Dwyer, National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality and ETS; Rebecca Phillips, National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality and Learning Point Associates

Conference participants will have the opportunity to learn about and discuss state and district examples of emerging strategies to recruit and retain high-quality teachers in high-need schools with experts and practitioners. Each roundtable session will last for 25 minutes so participants can take part in two different roundtable discussions.
Facilitator: Cortney Rowland, National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality and Learning Point Associates

Terrace Ballroom

• Teach For America—Abigail Smith, Teach For America
• Innovative State-Level Recruitment and Retention Strategies in Louisiana—Sheila Talamo, Louisiana State Department of Education
• California State University Mathematics and Science Teacher Initiative—Beverly Young, Teacher Education and Public Schools Programs, California State University

Directors Room

• Troops to Teachers—John Gantz, Troops to Teachers, Defense Activity for Non-Traditional Education Support (DANTES)
• Engaging Retired Educators: Model Programs That Work—Megan Stevens Hookey, NRTA: AARP's Educator Community

Congressional Room

• Challenge of Preparing Teachers for Special-Needs Students—Susan Smartt, National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality and Vanderbilt University
• Helping States Use Data to Impact Personnel Development of Special Educators—Phoebe Gillespie, National Association of State Directors of Special Education (NASDSE)

Chairman's Room

• Meritorious New Teacher Candidate Program—Nancy Doorey, American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education
• Targeted Incentives for Hard-to-Staff Schools—Rebecca Everett, Principal, Hillcrest Elementary School, Benwood, Tennessee

1. General—The Role of Institutions of Higher Education and Education System Partnerships in Ongoing Teacher Quality Work
   This session will describe higher education initiatives and partnerships focused on improving teacher quality, particularly in hard-to-staff schools and subject areas. Several examples will be shared, including the recent work commissioned by the National Association for System Heads (NASH) and cases involving the community college sector.
   Presenters: Charles Coble, Third Mile Group; Tricia Coulter, National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality and ECS
   Facilitator: Jane Coggshall, National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality and Learning Point Associates

2. Preparation—The Challenge of Preparing Teachers for Special-Needs Students
   Inclusion and mainstreaming for special needs students requires that all teachers and teacher candidates be highly qualified and prepared to address the needs of these students in their general education classrooms. This session will include a discussion of how to address this challenge and will address policy implications for state education agencies.
   Presenter: Susan Smartt, National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality and Vanderbilt University; Phoebe Gillespie, NASDSE Facilitator: Amy Potemski, National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality and Learning Point Associates

3. Recruitment and Retention—Recruitment and Retention of Teachers in High-Need Schools: Lessons Learned From NEA's National Board Certified Teacher Policy Summits
   The National Education Association (NEA) instituted a series of National Board Certified Teacher Policy Summits to solicit recommendations from the nation's most accomplished teachers about how to best staff and support high-need schools. This session will feature representatives from NEA and from one state's policy summit to discuss these recommendations and how they can be implemented in the state and local policy arenas.
   Presenters: Susan Carmon, NEA; Deirdre "Dee" Murph, National Board–Certified Teacher, Lexington, South Carolina; Kayetta Meadows, South Carolina Education Association
   Facilitator: Gretchen Weber, National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality and Learning Point Associates

This session will provide the opportunity for participants to engage in facilitated discussion with individuals from other states and organizations who have similar roles and duties. The discussion will be about responsibilities and opportunities for ensuring that there are highly effective teachers in all classrooms.
Facilitator: Tricia Coulter, National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality and Learning Point Associates

Ensuring that at-risk schools are served by high-quality teachers is a challenge faced by many states. This session will present examples of the use of incentive pay to recruit teachers into these schools and encourage them to remain.
Presenters: Cynthia Prince, Council of Chief State School Officers; Terry Grier, Guilford County Schools Superintendent; Rebecca Everett, Principal, Hillcrest Elementary School, Benwood, Tennessee
Moderator: Charles Coble, Partner, Third Mile Group

The NCLB Act is due for reauthorization. Join a representative from the Committee on Education and the Workforce to learn about and discuss changes in teacher quality requirements this reauthorization may include.
Presenter: Alice Johnson Cain, Education Legislative Associate, Committee on Education and the Workforce
Facilitator: Paul Kimmelman, National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality and Learning Point Associates

1. General—Implementation of NCLB and Title II
   This session will present a method of building organizational capacity and meeting the requirements of NCLB, including the highly qualified teacher requirements, through use of a knowledge model that provides an effective framework for evidence-based continuous improvement.
   Presenter: Paul Kimmelman, National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality and Learning Point Associates
   Facilitator: Gretchen Weber, National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality and Learning Point Associates



2. Preparation—Effective Preparation for High-Quality Literacy Instruction
   High-quality literacy instruction is the key to student mastery of almost any other topic. How well are teachers prepared to teach reading, especially for students with special needs and in at-risk schools? This session will begin to answer this question.
   Presenters: Kate Walsh, National Council on Teacher Quality; Greg Roberts, Center on Instruction
   Moderator: Dan Reschly, National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality and Vanderbilt University



3. Recruitment and Retention—State Strategies for Rural Recruitment and Retention
   Rural schools and school districts face overwhelming odds in their efforts to meet the needs of a growing and increasingly diverse special-needs student population. This session will present an overview of promising practices currently being implemented by states and school districts to recruit and retain a highly qualified special education workforce. The session will focus on combining multiple recruitment and incentive strategies for special education teachers with rural-focused preparation and supportive policies that will help rural schools.
   Presenters: Doris Terry Williams, Rural School and Community Trust; Charles Barron, Superintendent, Shaw, Mississippi
   Facilitator: Cortney Rowland, National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality and Learning Point Associates

This session will discuss the teacher quality provisions of NCLB and IDEA and implications for both preservice and inservice training.
Presenter: Louis Danielson, Office of Special Education Programs, U.S. Department of Education
Facilitator: Sabrina Laine, National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality and Learning Point Associates

This session will provide the opportunity for participants to engage in facilitated discussion about the role of the regional comprehensive centers, state education agencies, and national organizations in navigating the shift from highly qualified to highly effective teachers.
Facilitator: Tricia Coulter, National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality and ECS

The shortage of special education teachers may be alleviated partially by improving a teacher's ability to engage in early and effective reading and mathematics interventions and strong classroom organization and behavior management. Better success in these arenas would result in fewer referrals, reduced numbers of students in special education and a subsequent reduced demand for special education teachers as well as improved general education outcomes. This session will include a discussion of this issue.
Presenters: Thomas Komp, Principal, Boulevard Elementary School, Gloversville, New York; Louis Danielson, Office of Special Education Programs, U.S. Department of Education; Stephanie Al Otaiba, Florida State University College of Education and the Florida Center for Reading Research
Moderator: Dan Reschly, National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality and Vanderbilt University
Facilitator: Rebecca Phillips, National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality and Learning Point Associates

Presenters: Sabrina Laine, National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality and Learning Point Associates; Diane Massell, University of Michigan