As part of his FY 2013 budget proposal, President Obama has requested $5 billion through the American Jobs Act for a new initiative to elevate teachers and school leaders. Known as Recognizing Education Success, Professional Excellence and Collaborative Teaching or “RESPECT,” the one-time competitive grant program would support states and districts “that commit to pursuing bold reforms at every stage of the teaching profession.”

“Our goal is to work with teachers and principals in rebuilding their profession and to elevate the teacher voice in federal, state and local education policy,” said US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan in a press release announcing the proposal. “Our larger goal is to make teaching not only America’s most important profession, but also America’s most respected profession.”

While most of the rhetoric surrounding RESPECT has focused almost exclusively on teachers, the key elements of the initiative would also impact principals and other school leaders:

• Attract a high-performing and diverse pool of people to become teachers and leaders in education and ensure that they are well prepared to be successful in the school environments in which they will work;
• Retain, promote and maximize the talents of accomplished teachers and leaders, while creating well-supported roles for novices;
• Create schools whose climates and cultures, use of time, approaches to staffing, use of technology, deployment of support services, and engagement of families and communities are optimized to continuously improve outcomes for the students they serve;
• Evaluate and support the development and success of teachers and leaders;
• Create an education system that provides the highest need students with the most effective teachers and principals, and provide access to other necessary resources to support every student’s academic success; and
• Transition to a significantly more effective and efficient educational system that is sustainable after the grant program has ended.

In an interview with Jon Stewart last night on The Daily Show, Secretary Duncan said that the “ability to attract and retain talent now will impact education for the next 30 years,” and we at NASSP couldn’t agree more! We look forward to working with the administration and Congress to ensure that teachers and school leaders are well-prepared and supported to meet the demands of educating students to excellence in the 21^st Century.