Network for Excellence in Teaching

Network for Excellence in Teaching (NExT) The Network for Excellence in Teaching (NExT) initiative promotes teacher effectiveness as the best means of closing student achievement gaps. FHI 360 provides coaching and technical support to 14 Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota universities participating in the program. An FHI 360 coach is assigned to each site to assist university administrators, faculty and K–12 partners with strategic planning and implementation of reforms that focus on recruiting, preparing, placing and supporting new teachers, as well as measuring the progress of their efforts. In the early years of the NExT initiative, FHI 360 assisted the 14 institutions of higher education with the development and presentation of their proposals to the Bush Foundation. FHI 360 also helped the Bush Foundation with cross-site meetings and the recruitment of the Advisory and Review Committee, a panel of national experts in teacher education reform that helped to monitor and guide NExT. FHI 360 staff worked with Bush Foundation leaders to develop agendas that tapped into the expertise of the committee members. In addition, FHI 360 facilitated the work of the NExT common metrics work group, which developed a set of four aligned surveys to measure their progress toward producing effective teachers. Candidates and graduates of each of the institutions complete three surveys: 1) upon entry into their teacher preparation programs, 2) at exit, and 3) one year after graduation (known as the transition to teaching survey). The fourth survey, the supervisor survey, is completed by employers during the graduates’ first year of teaching. All four surveys have been subjected to multiple rounds of psychometric analyses and subsequent revisions to establish reliability and validity. As a result, the surveys can be used for program improvement, accreditation and national benchmarking. Countries: United States Funder: Bush Foundation Duration: 2010 - 2017