Investing in Teacher Leadership to Increase Student Success in Louisiana
February 1, 2023
Great classroom teaching is essential for student success. Creating systems and support for consistently strong classroom teaching for every student, every day, is the focus of an innovative group of school districts in Louisiana. With support from a federal Teacher Incentive Fund grant, these districts partnered with the National Institute for Excellence in Teaching to improve the effectiveness of teachers and school leaders and increase student achievement in some of the highest-need schools in the state.
The partnership, named Louisiana Building On Leadership Development (LA BOLD), includes five districts: DeSoto, East Feliciana, Madison, Rapides, and St. John the Baptist Parishes, as well as six Orleans Parish charter schools (L.B. Landry High School, Martin Behrman Charter School, McDonogh 35 Senior High School, Dwight D. Eisenhower Charter School, Mary McLeod Bethune Elementary Charter School, and Benjamin Franklin Elementary Mathematics and Science School). NIET provided on-site training and support for districts and schools to create teacher leadership roles, improve classroom observation and feedback, establish collaborative professional learning teams, and offer opportunities for teachers and leaders to earn additional compensation based on multiple measures of effectiveness.
More than 1,100 teachers and school leaders and over 14,900 students were impacted each year through this partnership. By the end of the grant, we saw dramatic results, including:
- Growth in the percentage of effective teachers, with 90% of teachers rated as effective – a 15-percentage point increase from baseline.
- Increase in retention of effective teachers, with 96% of effective teachers retained – a 16-percentage point increase from baseline.
- Gains in student performance, with 93% of schools improving in ELA, math, social studies, and/or science
Learn more about the LA BOLD partnership here.
