Jane Best and Emily Winslow at McREL Education have released a new brief focusing on current challenges of working toward equity in education. Particularly in a post Vergara vs. California education climate, educator equity and how to effectively distribute teachers to all students it is an issue on education professionals’ minds.
With increasingly diverse student populations, educational equity is a bigger challenge than ever for public schools across the United States.
This brief provides an overview for policymakers on addressing equity gaps for vulnerable student populations through educator effectiveness. Specifically, the authors examine three components:
- recruiting and distributing effective educators;
- supporting and retaining teachers through targeted professional development;
- and improving educator evaluation practices to address equity gaps for vulnerable student populations.
The brief concludes with the following policy recommendations:
Recruit and Distribute Effective Educators
Offer incentives to recruit high-performing individuals, provide fair compensation, and prepare educators to face unique challenges.
Identify educator shortages and gaps in high-need schools and subject areas and place effective educators accordingly.
Tackle inadequate educator preparation and the unequal distribution of effective teachers simultaneously to help improve school outcomes and measure improvement.
Support and Retain Effective Educators
Provide culturally appropriate resources for professional development, including the opportunity to engage with expert practitioners to promote collaboration, use of innovative online and video tools, and shared curricula.
Maintain high standards for teachers while providing ongoing targeted professional development opportunities.
Foster a positive culture for educators by providing clear guidelines on working conditions and school environments to promote academic success in hard-to-staff schools.
Improve Preparation and Evaluation Systems
Use district data to determine effective practices and implementation of equity strategies that demonstrate educator ability to teach a diverse range of students.
Develop appropriate data accountability systems for educators that are integrated at the school, district, state, and federal levels for continuous improvement using accurate, current data.
Link data from accountability systems to provide educators with targeted professional development opportunities and identify areas of professional need to support ineffective educators.
To access the brief, please visit: http://www.mcrel.org/~/media/Files/McREL/Homepage/Products/100_199/prod127_PB_Equality.ashx
