The document outlines a vision called RESPECT (Recognizing Educational Success, Professional Excellence and Collaborative Teaching) to transform the teaching profession. It discusses that the current education system is not adequately preparing students and that teachers are not treated as respected professionals. RESPECT was developed based on input from thousands of educators and aims to establish high standards, continuous development, collaborative teaching environments, and reward excellence. The document details the seven critical components of RESPECT and next steps for stakeholders to implement reforms aligned with this vision.

1. Recognizing Educational Success,
Professional Excellence and
Collaborative Teaching
The Case for RESPECT

2. Presentation Overview
A 21st Century Challenge- The “Why”
o Why do we need to transform teaching and leading?
A 21st Century Answer- The “What”
o What is RESPECT and where did it come from? How can it help us to meet
the challenge facing our students and educators?
o What does success look like?
Next Steps- The “Who, How & Now”
o Who must act to implement RESPECT?
o How can we take action?
o What can we do right now?
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3. A 21st Century Challenge
 Every child in America deserves a high quality
education.
 Today, students need to know and be able to do more
in order to succeed.
 Yet America’s education system has lost ground to
other nations competing with us in the global
marketplace that have continued to make progress.
 Too many of our students do not exit high school
prepared for college and a career.
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“This is what we have dreamed about as educators … It is time
for sweeping changes to education.” –Teacher, North Carolina

4. A 21st Century Challenge (cont’d)
 Teachers are the most important in-school
determinant of student academic success—
and principals are the second most
important.
 Great teachers and principals nurture young
people and help them grow—not only
academically, but personally, socially and
emotionally.
 Great teachers and principals can help to
close persistent achievement gaps, improve
student attitudes about school and build
habits of mind that can change a student’s life
trajectory.
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“The time is ripe for teachers to reclaim our ideals and change
our profession.” –Teacher, New Mexico

5. A 21st Century Challenge (cont’d)
 Yet educators are not treated like members of
a highly regarded profession.
 Other respected professions—such as
accounting, medicine, engineering and law—
share attributes that are absent from
education.
 These include high standards for entry into
the field, opportunities to collaborate and to
advance into positions of leadership,
competitive compensation, continuous
development, and reward for
accomplishment.
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“The time is ripe for teachers to reclaim our ideals and change
our profession.” –Teacher, New Mexico

6. A 21st Century Solution
RESPECT
Individuals and organizations from across the education field are calling for
a similar set of ambitious, comprehensive and transformational improvements
to the teaching profession.
The recent work of a number of key national organizations has embraced these shared
notions of what must be done to advance the teaching profession, including:
 American Federation of Teachers (AFT)
 Association of School Administrators (AASA)
 Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO)
 Council of the Great City Schools (CGCS)
 National Education Association (NEA)
 National School Board Association (NSBA)
 U.S. Department of Education (ED)
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The Path to RESPECT
Locations where ED held RESPECT
conversations with educators in 2012

7. A 21st Century Solution
RESPECT (cont’d)
RESPECT stands for Recognizing Educational Success, Professional
Excellence and Collaborative Teaching
 A focus on “recognizing educational success” means that the
primary aim of this initiative is to implement reforms that increase
student achievement.
 An emphasis on “professional excellence” means that a large part
of the RESPECT project is devoted to helping teachers continuously
improve their practice while recognizing and rewarding greatness in
the classroom.
 Finally, a focus on “collaborative teaching” means that RESPECT
aims to highlight the importance of shared responsibility in creating
schools where principals and teachers can support each other, hold
one another accountable, and lift each other to new levels of skill.
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“This is our moon landing moment.” –Principal, Virginia

8. Teachers, leaders and policymakers from across the field have embraced a
shared vision of 21st century teaching and leading that identifies seven critical
components of a transformed teaching profession:
1. Shared responsibility and leadership
2. Top talent, prepared for success
3. Continuous growth and professional development
4. Effective teachers and principals
5. Professional career continuum with competitive compensation
6. Conditions for successful teaching and learning
7. Engaged communities
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Seven Critical Components
for transforming teaching and leading
A strong education system is one that effectively fuses these
elements to build one comprehensive and coherent system.
A 21st Century Solution
RESPECT (cont’d)

9. Three Goals of RESPECT:
1) High levels of student achievement
2) Increased equity
3) Increased global competitiveness
The larger goal of the initiative is to make teaching not only
America’s most important profession, but also America’s most
respected profession.
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Measuring Success
A 21st Century Solution
RESPECT (cont’d)

10. Next Steps
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Taking Action Together
 For the RESPECT vision to truly take root, all stakeholders, led by educators,
must take up the cause as their own and apply the core ideas in the RESPECT
vision to their unique circumstances.
 Start by building a common
foundation- Read the full
RESPECT Blueprint, including
the vision document drafted
by teachers to develop a
common understanding of
what RESPECT looks like.

11. Next Steps (cont’d)
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Taking Action Today
 Take stock- Use the online RESPECT self-inventory to
assess school or district strengths and weaknesses.
 Begin the discussion- Convene interested teachers,
school leaders, board members and /or parents to
discuss the current status, goals and next steps.
 Create an action plan- Develop a RESPECT plan for
action and begin outreach to build key support.
All RESPECT materials available
at www.ed.gov/teaching

12. Discussion
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 Describe successful initiatives/examples that you’ve seen implemented around
one of the seven RESPECT components inside or outside of this school
community.
 Where they are happening?
 How have the barriers been overcome in these situations?
 What capacities do stakeholder groups already possess to move work forward
in one of the seven critical RESPECT areas?
 What can further support efforts to advance this work?
 What steps can be taken by the stakeholder groups represented to advance
this work?
Thank you!

13. Appendix A
 Beginning in summer 2011, the U.S. Department of Education (ED) began
engaging educators directly about their profession, hosting roundtable
conversations across the country.
 In February 2012, Secretary Duncan officially launched the RESPECT Project: A
National Conversation on the Teaching Profession. In total, the RESPECT
Project engaged more than 5,700 educators in the national
conversation, and the Department hosted more than 360 roundtables
across the U.S.
 In May 2012, ED joined seven national co-sponsors in drafting and signing onto
a shared vision for the teaching profession.
 In April 2013, the Department published the Blueprint for RESPECT, officially
adopting a vision that now reflected feedback from thousands of educators, and
called the field to take action.
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Educator Input on RESPECT

14.  The RESPECT Project compels us to think systematically, rather than to
search for “silver bullets” of reform and it will take comprehensive reform
to reach the vision we’ve set out.
 In his budget request to congress, President Obama proposed investing
$5 billion in a RESPECT initiative in order to provide competitive grants to
states and districts that take on comprehensive reform of the teaching
profession aligned with the critical components laid out here.
 While awaiting funding, the US Department of Education is committed to
continuing to integrate the critical components of the RESPECT initiative
into existing programs and levers.
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The Federal Role Going Forward
Appendix B