National Institute for Excellence in Teaching

What it reported doing in 2024

Niet pursues improving educator effectiveness and the national k-12 education system through designing and implementing effective, cohesive professional learning systems. We categorize our work into five service areas: the tap system for teacher and student advancement: the tap system remains niet's comprehensive approach to establishing sustained structures for building educator excellence and increasing student achievement growth. Since its introduction in 1999, the tap system has led to dramatically improved outcomes for students and changed the trajectory of entire schools and communities. Over 95 percent of participating tap schools (see schedule o for continuations) are high-need and serve diverse areas - from phoenix to rural Tennessee. Through the implementation of four interrelated key elements (mentioned above), teachers are improving their instruction and the achievement of their students. School improvement solutions: the school improvement solutions model is rooted in proven principles from the tap system and aims to create effective structures for teacher leadership and foster an environment for educators and students alike to excel. It starts with a strengths-based needs assessment and is built around establishing four key elements in every school: instructional excellence, collaborative learning, reflective practices, and collective leadership. Based on each school's strengths-based needs assessment, niet designs its support to address the areas that will maximize and accelerate improvement and build foundational systems for success.rubric and observation systems: niet's teaching and learning standards rubric, principal standards rubric, and aspiring teacher rubric are based on nationally normed, research-based standards. Each rubric clearly defines effective teaching and fosters collaboration around a common language and vision that leads to student achievement. The rubrics bring a comprehensive focus across key domains, including: instruction, the learning environment, designing and planning instruction, and professionalism. Niet's complementary observation system provides schools with a strong, valid and reliable instrument for seeing how teachers and leaders are growing in their mastery of the rubrics. The observation system is based on multiple observations of every teacher, every year by multiple, trained and certified evaluators. All observations are followed up with a post-conference session between the observed teacher and the observer to discuss areas of strength and refinement with the sole purpose being to help the teacher and leader improve their practices.the rubric and observation system, in particular, are supplemented by niet's educator effectiveness preparation and support system (ee pass), which includes hundreds of hours' worth of videos that show effective teaching along with evidence and scoring and which allows for online certification for evaluators. Ee pass also includes a data management system that provides real-time access to evaluation data, which enables leaders to connect observation feedback with professional learning and ensure consistency and reliability across observers.teacher and leader development: niet supports teacher leadership and professional learning systems that create formal structures and give teacher leaders the responsibility, accountability, and authority to drive instruction. Niet also provides coaching and support for other key roles - particularly to empower principals, district, and other system administrators to be instructional leaders - recognizing that building deep capacity rooted in rich academic practice is foundational to long-term success. Niet's work in this area consists of designing and supporting career paths and advancement for educators as teacher leaders, establishing school-based professional learning systems, and delivering training and support that helps schools, districts, and states put teacher leadership at the center of efforts to impr

Financial Efficiency

• Mission deployment rate: 66%; rating input score 66
• Program expense ratio: 85.6%; rating input score 86
• Fundraising efficiency: $668 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 95; 95th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

• Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 62nd percentile among comparable filings
• Pay-setting controls: 5 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 83
  • Compensation committee: Pass
  • Independent consultant: Missing
  • Other Form 990s reviewed: Pass
  • Written employment contract: Pass
  • Compensation survey or study: Pass
  • Board or committee approval: Pass
• Foreign activity oversight: Limited
• Grant itemization coverage: 100%; rating input score 100; 72nd percentile among comparable filings
• Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
• Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

• Independent voting board: 85.7%; rating input score 86; 19th percentile among comparable filings
• Governance controls: 9 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 100
  • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
  • Whistleblower policy: Pass
  • Document-retention policy: Pass
  • CEO compensation review process: Pass
  • Other executive compensation review process: Pass
  • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
  • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
  • Audit committee oversight: Pass
  • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

• Operating margin: 17.7%; rating input score 80; 80th percentile among comparable filings
• Total-asset coverage ratio: 2.26; rating input score 66; 66th percentile among comparable filings
• Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.04; rating input score 86; 86th percentile among comparable filings
• Officer compensation ratio: 9.5%; rating input score 22; 22nd percentile among comparable filings

Growth

• Program expense growth: 0.7% per year; rating input score 100; 13th percentile among comparable filings
• Revenue growth: 2.8% per year; rating input score 100; 24th percentile among comparable filings
• Asset growth: 12.5% per year; rating input score 100; 74th percentile among comparable filings