ERIC Number: ED578792
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 2017-Nov
Pages: 13
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
NEPC Review: "Tackling Gaps in Access to Strong Teachers: What State Leaders Can Do (The Education Trust, October 2017)
Santoro, Doris A.
National Education Policy Center
The Every Students Succeeds Act (ESSA) directs states and districts to identify equity gaps in students' access to excellent educators and transformative school leaders. States are encouraged to use Title II funds strategically in order to identify and remedy these gaps. A new report from The Education Trust draws on ESSA documents and state teacher equity plans to provide guidance to state leaders, including some sound advice--but with significant omissions. The Education Trust Report, "Tackling Gaps in Access to Strong Teachers: What State Leaders Can Do," was written by Rachel Metz and Allison Rose Socol. The report does not engage with thorny issues around alternative pathways into teaching, and it largely skirts issues around incentives for supporting teacher recruitment and retention in hard-to-staff schools. The report also does not consider what attracts teachers into the profession and into particular school environments. Likewise, the report fails to draw on the explicit remedies sought by ESSA to link high-quality leadership and strong teacher recruitment and retention. Instead, the report casts the teacher equity problem primarily in terms of labor supply shortages and treats teachers like interchangeable widgets. Relying heavily on advocacy sources, it misses an opportunity to unpack the root causes of the teacher retention problem, particularly the corrosive impact of past federal and state policies on the teaching profession. The report does not help state leaders understand how they might build incentives and cultures that draw strong teachers into high-need schools, and they will thus be left with an incomplete and insufficient set of tools for ensuring all students have equitable access to excellent educators. This report provides a review of "Tackling Gaps in Access to Strong Teachers: What State Leaders Can Do." (A list of notes and references is included.) [For the Education Trust report, "Tackling Gaps in Access to Strong Teachers: What State Leaders Can Do," see ED578853. For the executive summary to for the Education Trust report, "Tackling Gaps in Access to Strong Teachers: What State Leaders Can Do. Executive Summary," see ED578854.]
Descriptors: Teacher Competencies, Teacher Effectiveness, Equal Education, Minority Group Students, Poverty, Racial Differences, Socioeconomic Status, Administrator Role, State Departments of Education, Consciousness Raising, Expectation, Educational Improvement, Resource Allocation, Networks, Cooperative Planning, Problem Solving, School Districts, At Risk Students, Teacher Placement, Educational Legislation, Elementary Secondary Education, Federal Legislation, Data Collection, Data Analysis, Accountability, Disproportionate Representation, Information Sources, Research Methodology, Professional Isolation
National Education Policy Center. School of Education 249 UCB University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309. Tel: 303-735-5290; e-mail: nepc@colorado.edu; Web site: http://nepc.colorado.edu
Publication Type: Reports - Research
Education Level: Elementary Secondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: Great Lakes Center for Education Research and Practice
Authoring Institution: University of Colorado at Boulder, National Education Policy Center
Identifiers - Laws, Policies, & Programs: Elementary and Secondary Education Act Title II
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A