Fuller reports little progress on distribution of quality teachers

Students in low-performing schools continue to be much less likely than their peers to have access to quality teachers, according to a new study commissioned by the Association of Texas Professional Educators  and conducted by noted education researcher Ed Fuller. This inequitable distribution of teachers is most acute in low-performing secondary schools and schools with high minority enrollments. This is the second study by Fuller showing that the students that need good teachers the most are significantly less likely to get them.

Elementary schools appear to have more equitable distribution of teachers of quality. Fuller believes this result is most likely due to a larger supply of elementary teachers.

To do his research, Fuller developed a Teacher Quality Index (TQI) designed to identify teachers of high quality. The measures included were teacher experience, certification status, academic ability, and the stability of the teacher at a school. Fuller says that research has shown a significant relationship between these measures and student achievement gains.

The importance of teacher quality and distribution rose to the forefront when the No Child Left Behind Act (2001) mandated that states assess teacher distribution and implement plans to improve overall teacher quality and create a more equitable distribution of quality teachers. While districts are required to do annual reporting related to teacher quality, few have addressed the inequitable distribution of teachers.

Fuller recommends that state policymakers address teacher quality distribution issues by doing the following:

• Adopt a new cost-of-education index (CEI) to help equalize school funding.
• Support the creation of “urban teacher academies” and “urban leader academies” in the 10 largest metropolitan areas of the state.
• Create incentives for teacher preparation programs to produce teachers that meet the demands of the local labor market.
• Increase the requirements to enter teacher preparation programs, especially alternative certification programs.
• Fund a statewide study of teacher working conditions for all schools.
• Improve the training of school and district leaders to improve teacher retention.
• Improve state data collection systems to address missing teacher quality data and issues with existing data.
• Provide school-level value-added data to allow leaders to identify areas of strength and weakness.
• Improve the state’s school accountability system to remove disincentives for teachers to move to low-performing schools.
• Develop a statewide campaign to increase the prestige of the teaching profession.