For the past 25 years, NIET has worked in more than 11,000 schools across the country to support great teaching and improve student achievement.

Our Mission

Knowing that teacher quality is the single biggest in-school factor for student success, the National Institute for Excellence in Teaching (NIET) builds educator excellence to give all students the opportunity for success.

Our vision is that every student in America is taught by an excellent teacher and supported by effective leaders every year—and that has been the foundation of our work for the past two decades. We believe intentional, sustained and high-quality investments in educators directly result in success for all students and are essential to eliminating equity gaps. We have optimism about what every teacher and student is capable of, and we see them rise to new levels of success every day.

As a result, NIET is committed to raising achievement levels for all students by focusing on the most powerful lever for change: teachers and the leadership that supports them.

 

About NIET

For the past 25 years, NIET has worked in more than 11,000 schools across the country to support great teaching and raise student achievement.

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300,000
Educators who benefit from NIET's partnerships.
3M
Students who, through NIET's work, are inspired to excel every day.
35,000
Teacher leaders, trained by NIET, who use proven strategies for success.
The only people who develop human potential and character as a calling are educators. This puts the men and women who choose to be teachers and principals in a position of unique power to help secure our children's future.
NIET Founder Lowell Milken

Our Team

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Lowell Milken

Founder
Lowell Milken's lifelong commitment to strengthening K-12 education has led to some of the country's most innovative means to dramatically advance educator effectiveness.

Dr. Joshua Barnett

Chief Executive Officer
Dr. Joshua Barnett is the chief executive officer for NIET, responsible for overseeing all of the organization’s operations including service delivery, research and evaluation, professional learning and learning technology development, policy and communications, financial operations, and higher...

Nicole Bolen

Senior Director of Services
With over 23 years of experience, Nicole Bolen supports districts and schools in NIET's networks and serves on the content development team, contributing to various NIET projects.

Vicky Condalary

Senior Vice President of Services and Partnerships
Before serving as senior vice president of services, Vicky was executive director of the LA BOLD Project, assistant director of school services and was the project director for TAP Connect, a SEED grant in partnership with Texas Tech and five independent area school districts.

Patti Cruz

Senior Director of Services
Patti started with NIET in 2009 when she joined ASU Prep Academy as a TAP master teacher. She then went on to support the AZ Ready for Rigor Grant.

Dr. Tanée Hudgens

Vice President of Research and Evaluation
As vice president of research and evaluation at NIET, Dr. Tanée Hudgens is responsible for establishing, managing, and overseeing research and evaluation initiatives within the organization.

Molly Kwas

Chief Financial Officer
As chief financial officer, Molly provides leadership, management, and oversight for all fiscal activities related to the operations of NIET.

Dr. Davita Lancelin

Vice President of Services
As the Vice President of Services at the National Institute for Excellence in Teaching, Dr. Lancelin brings more than two decades of experience in strengthening teacher effectiveness and student outcomes through school, district, and state-level partnerships.
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Our Educator Advisory Board

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 Chris  Coffelt

Chris Coffelt

Superintendent

Central Decatur Community School District

Iowa

 Lizette  Esparza

Lizette Esparza

Superintendent

Gadsden Elementary School District #32

Arizona

 Meagen  Flores

Meagen Flores

Academic Facilitator, Harmony Elementary

East Central Independent School District

Texas

Dr. Shawn  Foster

Dr. Shawn Foster

Superintendent

Orangeburg County School District

South Carolina

 Bethany  Gibson

Bethany Gibson

Principal, Douglas MacArthur Elementary

Perry Township Schools

Indiana

 Sam  Jordan

Sam Jordan

Grant Director

Alaska Council of School Administrators

Alaska

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Board Members

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Lowell Milken

Founder

Lowell Milken's lifelong commitment to strengthening K-12 education has led to some of the country's most innovative means to dramatically advance educator effectiveness.

Dr. Gary Stark

Vice Chairman

As vice chairman of NIET's board, Dr. Gary Stark supports and advises NIET staff and the board of directors in their mission to advance educator effectiveness.

Dr. James W. Guthrie

Board Member

Dr. James W. Guthrie is a presidential fellow and professor of Education Policy at Lynn University in Boca Raton, Florida.

Dr. Bryan Johnson

Board Member

Dr. Bryan Johnson, a native of Nashville and proud product of public schools, serves as chief of staff for U.S. Xpress.

Dr. Wayne D. Lewis Jr.

Board Member

Dr. Wayne D. Lewis Jr. is the president of Houghton College and is a champion of students with 20 years of experience in education.

Dr. Candice McQueen

Board Member

Dr. Candice McQueen is the president of Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tennessee. She formerly served as chief executive officer of NIET and Tennessee's commissioner of education.

Ray Simon

Board Member

Ray Simon is the head of Simon Consulting, where he provides independent consulting services at the national, state and local levels on topics relating to education policy and practice.

Our History

The goal of NIET has always been clear: Build teacher excellence to improve student outcomes. Now, we have 25 years of experience doing just that.

From the revolutionary TAP System for Teacher and Student Advancement that was launched in 1999 to our partnerships impacting 350,000 educators and 3.5 million students, NIET has helped our nation's highest-need schools and districts earn historic results in student achievement.

Through its comprehensive approach to teacher leadership, professional development, evaluation and competitive compensation, the TAP System has created dynamic and collaborative learning environments for students and educators alike. Early TAP adopters—including Arizona, South Carolina and Louisiana—were led by state leaders who had the foresight and conviction to enact transformative change. Those early successes spurred additional partnerships in diverse schools and districts across the country. 

TAP has now been recognized by multiple researchers as an innovative model with proven success, and the foundational components of TAP have been the building blocks for all of NIET's work. As demand escalated for TAP's proven instructional tools, NIET developed a range of educator effectiveness initiatives to cover a broader base and customize our partnerships and support to fit specific state and district needs. By 2010, NIET had doubled its impact on teachers and students across a number of states including Tennessee, Texas and Ohio, and clearly established how teacher effectiveness impacts student success.

For example, in 2011, Tennessee became the first state to also use NIET's teaching standards as the basis for feedback and observation, including them in the Tennessee Educator Acceleration Model (TEAM). Thanks to effective teachers in the classrooms, Tennessee became the fastest-improving state in the country on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). Based on the successful effort in Tennessee, NIET was awarded a contract with the Ohio Department of Education to design training and support tools around the Ohio Teacher Evaluation System (OTES). The Ohio portal now includes more than 12,000 certified evaluators who benefit from the sophisticated training system complete with video, modules, live-streaming and more. 

At the same time, universities began working with NIET to integrate TAP into their curriculum and clinical practices, strengthening the alignment of teacher preparation with the needs of local schools. In 2009, NIET began a partnership with Arizona State University (ASU), with Texas Tech University following in 2013. Today, NIET partners with over 75 universities to support stronger teacher preparation.

More recently, NIET has taken the best practices from the work underway and developed new service options that meet the needs schools face today, focusing specifically on two areas: school improvement and teacher and leader development. Through these initiatives, NIET has seen promising outcomes at schools in a variety of different environments and is building capacity so schools can sustain their growth for years to come.

NIET's role and influence have expanded from a few partners to a national movement over the past 25 years. With the recent passage of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), NIET principles are now embedded into K-12 education law and aligned with federal requirements. NIET is seen as a policy leader at both federal and state levels, helping to sustain and expand initiatives that support teacher leadership and keep educator effectiveness at the forefront of the national agenda to strengthen K-12 education. At the federal level, the Teacher Incentive Fund (TIF), Teacher and School Leader Incentive (TSL) program, Supporting Effective Educator Development (SEED) program, and Title II have provided some of the highest-need schools in the U.S. with resources to attract, develop, motivate and retain talented educators over the long term. States such as Iowa and Texas have approved comprehensive policies for supporting teacher leadership, mentoring, professional development, evaluation and competitive compensation. This has created opportunities for educators to grow, and now hundreds of our partners across districts, states and educator programs are demonstrating how great teaching creates great schools.

We are proud to be pioneers in this work, but we have only just begun. We look forward to the next 25 years of building educator excellence to ensure every student in every classroom in America has the opportunity to learn from a great teacher every year.