Ed Trust Statement; MISSING THE MARK: STATES' TEACHER-EQUITY PLANS FALL SHORT

The Ed Trust is doing a fantastic job highlighting this problem -- below and attached are their latest press releases and report on this.

A new Education Trust analysis of teacher-equity plans prepared by all 50 states and the District of Columbia finds that most states failed to properly analyze data that would determine whether poor and minority children get more than their fair share of unqualified, inexperienced, and out-of-field teachers. Only two states, Nevada and Ohio, fully complied with the requirements and offered specific plans to remedy inequities.

 

As a result, the Ed Trust report released today recommends that the U.S. Department of Education reject the overwhelming majority of plans and require states to start over – this time with clearer guidance from the federal government on what is required by the law.

 

“Research is clear that teachers make the difference in how much students learn, said Heather Peske, the Education Trust senior associate who directed the analysis. “We can’t close achievement gaps without confronting the gaps in access to teacher quality for low-income and minority students.”

 

The No Child Left Behind Act not only requires states to guarantee that 100 percent of core academic classes are taught by “highly qualified” teachers, but also to “ensure that poor and minority children are not taught at higher rates than other children by inexperienced, unqualified or out of field teachers.”

 

After years of ignoring this provision of the law, the U.S. Department of Education required that state leaders submit data on the distribution of teachers by July 7 -- along with their plans to fix it.

 

Sadly, most states missed the mark.

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Ed Trust Statement on US DOE Review of State Plans for Highly Qualified and Experienced Teachers in Every Classroom

 

 

(Washington, D.C.) – Today, the U.S. Department of Education released a review of each state’s plan to ensure that all students are taught by highly qualified and experienced teachers. The Department concluded that the overwhelming majority of states must revise and re-submit their data and plans to address inequities.

 

“This is a move in the right direction,” said Heather Peske, Education Trust’s senior associate for teacher quality. “But the Department and states should do more. It’s critical that the Department provide concrete and specific guidance to states on what sorts of data they need to collect and what it will take to address the problem.”

 

The Education Trust urges the Department to:

 

• Issue Explicit Guidance to All States

 

The Department needs to issue more explicit guidance to all states on what is required of them under the teacher-equity provisions in No Child Left Behind. Currently, the Department is planning to issue guidance to just four states cited for their lack of plans. Much more is needed. Given the states’ confusion over what information they were initially supposed to submit to the Department, it is clear that states need specific advice on the data they need to collect and the strategies they need to design and use to solve these problems.

 

• Hold States Accountable in September

 

It also is important that the Department rigorously review the new data and revised plans that states submit in September to determine whether they offer an accurate picture of teacher distribution, provide concrete strategies to ensure that poor and minority students are not disproportionately taught by inexperienced, unqualified and out-of-field teachers and offer measurable goals to track progress.

 

 “The Department should hold states accountable to the equity-plan requirements, no matter how long it takes to get it right,” Peske said. “This shouldn’t devolve into a bureaucratic paper- shuffling exercise at the expense of low-income and minority students.”

 

“The Department has been way too lax on the teacher-quality front for the last four years,” she said. “Our hope is that they use this opportunity to take teacher quality seriously. The educational future of poor and minority students depends on it.”

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MISSING THE MARK: STATES’ TEACHER-EQUITY PLANS FALL SHORT

 

http://www2.edtrust.org/EdTrust/Press+Room/Teacher+Equity+Plans+Embargoed+Release.htm

 

(Washington, D.C.) – A new Education Trust analysis of teacher-equity plans prepared by all 50 states and the District of Columbia finds that most states failed to properly analyze data that would determine whether poor and minority children get more than their fair share of unqualified, inexperienced, and out-of-field teachers. Only two states, Nevada and Ohio, fully complied with the requirements and offered specific plans to remedy inequities.

 

As a result, the Ed Trust report released today recommends that the U.S. Department of Education reject the overwhelming majority of plans and require states to start over – this time with clearer guidance from the federal government on what is required by the law.

 

“Research is clear that teachers make the difference in how much students learn, said Heather Peske, the Education Trust senior associate who directed the analysis. “We can’t close achievement gaps without confronting the gaps in access to teacher quality for low-income and minority students.”

 

The No Child Left Behind Act not only requires states to guarantee that 100 percent of core academic classes are taught by “highly qualified” teachers, but also to “ensure that poor and minority children are not taught at higher rates than other children by inexperienced, unqualified or out of field teachers.”

 

After years of ignoring this provision of the law, the U.S. Department of Education required that state leaders submit data on the distribution of teachers by July 7 -- along with their plans to fix it.

 

Sadly, most states missed the mark.

 

To comply with the law, each state had to look at inequality in four areas:...