Teaching quality is recognized as the most powerful school-based factor in student learning. However, capacity and often commitment have been insufficient across states and districts to ensure all students have equitable access to excellent educators. Too often, students from low-income families and students of color experience educational “opportunity gaps,” meaning they have less access to effective teaching and rigorous coursework and encounter lower expectations from adults.
To address the problem of inequitable access to effective teachers, the U.S. Department of Education (ED) asked each state to submit a plan by June 1, 2015, to ensure that “poor and minority children are not taught at higher rates than other children by inexperienced, unqualified, or out-of-field teachers.” In collaboration with broad constituencies, states were required to:
- Calculate equity gaps in access to effective teachers between schools serving high- and low-proportions of students from low-income families and students of color;
- Determine and explain the root causes of those gaps;
- Design strategies to eliminate the gaps in teaching quality; and
- Describe the method and timeline for measuring progress toward ensuring equitable access.
This report, One Year Later, provides an overview of the gaps states identified in students’ access to high-quality teaching, examines the root causes for these gaps, and highlights promising approaches for eliminating them.
The state teacher equity plans show that lack of access to great teaching is most acute in high-need districts and schools. Yet differences in student academic performance observed between schools often mask even greater variations in student performance within schools. The issue appears to be less about unequal schools and more about unequal classrooms—the classroom to which a student is assigned matters more than the school he or she attends. While the unevenness in teaching quality is well-established, the problem is becoming more acute as expectations for all students have changed, but the underlying systems for preparing and supporting educators have not.
Access the full report here: One Year Later.
