Guardians Of Teacher Quality In American Elementary And Secondary Schools:A Study Of The National Council On Teacher Quality

Teachers' quality is of great significance for the growth of students,the promotion of teachers,and the development of the country.The National Council on Teacher Quality(NCTQ)serves as the guardian of American elementary and secondary school teachers' quality,and takes the vision of every child should have effective teachers and every teacher deserves the opportunity to be effective.This article takes the National Council on Teacher Quality as the research subject,shows the efforts of the American private think tanks on the road to improve the quality of teachers in elementary and secondary schools by analysing the activities implemented by the council and the effects of activities,and provide recommendations for the improvement of teachers' quality in basic education in China.This article mainly adopts the literature and comparative method to analyse and summarize the establishment background,historical development,organizational structure,main activities and activities' effects of the National Council on Teacher Quality.The main activities of the National Council on Teacher Quality can be summarized as: assessing the quality of elementary and secondary teacher preparation programs in universities and issuing quality rankings;analysing teacher policies of school districts and building a teacher policy information database;researching state teacher policy and publishing state teacher policy yearbook.The effects of activities of the National Council on Teacher Quality can be summarized as: improve the quality of elementary and secondary teacher preparation programs;promote school districts and state governments to improve teacher policies;and cultivate effective teachers for elementary and secondary schools.Through systematic and in-depth research,it has been found that the National Council on Teacher Quality mainly has four features: influence the quality of teachers by publishing quality ranking publicly;pay attention to the collection,reorganization,and analysis of teacher policies;concern on and improve the quality of teachers from pre-service training to post-job management;concern on building relationships with universities,elementary and secondary schools,government,etc.Based on the statusof China's teacher quality,combined with the characteristics of the National Council on Teacher Quality,this paper refines four implications: we should cooperate multiple forces to promote the quality of elementary and secondary teacher preparation programs;evaluate and adjust the post-job management teacher policies of elementary and secondary school;formulate relevant standards to identify effective teachers and support the growth and development of folk think tanks.