Education
Improving the Distribution of Teachers
According to many, teacher quality has the greatest influence on student achievement, and a new policy brief from the Alliance for Excellent Education finds that consistent exposure to effective teachers can help students overcome obstacles to learning and even close achievement gaps. The brief, Improving the Distribution of Teachers in Low-Performing High Schools (18 pages, PDF), unfortunately found that many schools — especially high-poverty, high-minority schools — are staffed by teachers who lack the experience, qualifications, and effectiveness needed to succeed in the classroom. Funded by the MetLife Foundation, the brief provides recommendations to resolve such challenges, including improving and enforcing Title I of the No Child Left Behind Act, which is meant to ensure that poor and minority students are not taught by inexperienced, unqualified, or out-of-field teachers at higher rates than other students.
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