African American Teachers in Suburban Desegregated Schools:
Intergroup Differences and the Impact of Performance Pressures

Teachers College Record, Columbia University, New York City. (2007).
R. O. Mabokela & J. A. Madsen

“There is much literature that examines how the desegregation literature had implications for majority teachers and its impact on students of color.  However, little has been written about the experiences of teachers of color working in suburban desegregated majority schools.   This article examines how intergroup differences created performance pressures for African American teachers and how this affected their ability to contribute optimally in these environments.”
Abstract (full text by membership or purchase):
http://www.tcrecord.org/Content.asp?ContentID=12892

An Analysis of State Data on the Distribution of Teaching Assignments Filled by Highly Qualified Teachers in New York Schools (New York State)
Regional Educational Laboratory for the Northeast and Islands, Education Development Center Inc, Newton, Massachusetts.  (2008).
A. Brackett, S. Mundry, S. Guckenburg, & P. Bourexis.
Distributed by WestEd, San Francisco.

“The purposes of this report are to increase understanding of staffing in rural schools in New York, to inform the State whether rural students have equitable access to highly qualified teachers, and to determine whether efforts are needed to recruit highly qualified teachers to rural areas.  Overall, New York rural schools and districts have a high percentage of core teaching assignments that are filled by highly qualified teachers.  In fact, urban schools -- particularly those in New York City -- are in greater need of increasing the number of core assignments filled by highly qualified teachers than are rural schools.”
Full text:   http://www.wested.org/cs/we/view/rs/878


Apprenticeship for Teaching: Professional Development Issues
Surrounding the Collaborative Relationship Between Teachers and Paraeducators
Center for Research on Education, Diversity and Excellence (CREDE),
University of California, Santa Cruz. (2000).  R. S. Rueda & L. S. Monzó.

“This report discusses findings from a study that examined issues surrounding the collaborative relationship between Latino paraeducators and the classroom teachers with whom they worked.  The researchers assessed the role of the paraeducator in the classroom, the nature of the paraeducator-teacher relationship, and the institutional factors impacting collaboration.  They found that paraeducators do engage in teaching students, but there is a lack of interaction between teachers and paraeducators due to the social structures in the school culture.  Moreover, teachers do not tap into paraeducators' knowledge of students' culture and community. The report briefly discusses the policy implications of these findings.”
Full text:   http://www.cal.org/crede/pubs/research/rr8.htm

Assessment of Diversity in America’s Teaching Force:
A Call to Action
National Collaborative on Diversity in the Teaching Force. (2004). 
Distributed by the National Education Association, Washington DC.

In this report, “the Collaborative examined the relationship between educational achievement and teacher diversity. . . . Some key trends (as of 2004) include: (a) nationally, about 17 percent of public school students are African American and 6 percent of teachers are African American; (b) likewise, about 17 percent of public school students are Hispanic and 5 percent of teachers are Hispanic; (c) in more than one-third (38 percent) of America’s public schools, there is not a single teacher of color on staff; (d) students of color tend to perform better –- academically, personally and socially –- when taught by teachers from their own ethnic groups; and (e) in most instances, fewer than 50 percent of African Americans pass teacher entrance exams; this pattern prevails across time, location and types of tests.  The Collaborative (proposed) solutions that include revising NCLB measures to clearly spell out diversity as a critical element of a ‘highly-qualified’ teacher workforce, identifying and eliminating the obstacles faced by minority teachers in passing entry tests, and developing programs that support teachers of color both in the pipeline and in the classroom.”
Press release – Click on the title for the full text:
http://www.nea.org/newsreleases/2004/nr041109.html


Can Teacher Quality Be Effectively Assessed?
Urban Institute, Washington DC. (2004).  D. Goldhaber & E. Anthony.

The authors “describe the results of a study assessing the relationship between National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) certification of teachers and elementary-level student achievement. More specifically, using a unique data set from North Carolina, (they) estimate student level value-added models and test whether the value added by National Board Certified teachers differs from that of unsuccessful current applicants and non-applicant teachers.  Findings indicate that NBPTS is successfully identifying the more effective teachers among applicants, and that NBPTS-certified teachers, prior to becoming certified, were more effective than their non-certified counterparts at increasing student achievement.  The statistical significance and magnitude of the ‘NBPTS effect,’ however, differs significantly by grade level and student type.
Full text:   http://www.urban.org/publications/410958.html

Chronic Teacher Turnover in Urban Elementary Schools
Education Policy Analysis Archives, Arizona State University. (2004).  K. Guin.

“This study examines the characteristics of elementary schools that experience chronic teacher turnover and the impacts of turnover on a school’s working climate and ability to effectively function -- based on evidence from staff climate surveys and case studies. . . . Schools with high teacher turnover rates have difficulty planning and implementing a coherent curriculum and sustaining positive working relationships among teachers. . . .The negative relationship between teacher turnover and school functioning, and the fact that turbulent schools are disproportionately likely to serve low-income and minority students have important implications for both district and school-level policies.”
Full Text:   http://epaa.asu.edu/epaa/v12n42/

Cultural Issues Related to High School Reform:
Deciphering the Case of Black Males
Center for Research on the Education of Students Placed At Risk (CRESPAR), The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland. (2002).
W. J. Jordan & R.Cooper.

Cultural Match or Culturally Suspect:  How New Teachers of Color Negotiate Sociocultural Challenges in the Classroom
Teachers College Record. (2008).  Columbia University, New York City.
B. Achinstein & J. Aguirre.

This “study examines the induction experiences of new teachers of color in urban high-minority schools as they negotiate challenges about cultural identifications. The research questions ask: How, if at all, do new teachers of color experience sociocultural challenges from students? If they do experience such challenges, how do the teachers respond to them in practice?  Participants were fifteen new teachers of color working in urban high-minority secondary schools in different subject domains in California.  The participants include Latino, African American, Asian, Filipino, and biracial new teachers. . . . The literature on novices, drawn from a White-dominant sample, has not included a discussion of sociocultural conflicts or the supports needed in induction years for teachers of color.  The study revealed the lack of support that many of the teachers felt in relation to negotiating sociocultural issues.  The study raises issues about targeted induction support for teachers of color that educators and researchers should consider as they seek to diversify the workforce.”
Abstract (full text by membership or purchase)
http://www.tcrecord.org/Content.asp?ContentID=15156


Culturally Relevant Approaches to Teacher Assessment
WCER Highlights. (2001).  G. Ladson-Billings.
Wisconsin Center for Education Research, University of Wisconsin-Madison.

“Much attention has been paid to new, ostensibly more ‘authentic’ forms of teacher assessment.  However, communities of color, which historically have raised questions about the potential biases built into traditional test measures, have challenged the purpose and design of many of the new assessments, concerned that they are having an adverse impact on the already shrinking pool of African American teachers. . . . (The author) considers three aspects of these assessments to discern ways in which taken-for-granted notions of authenticity may reproduce inequity.  Those aspects are (a) teaching contexts; (b) use of videotaping; and (c) portfolio assessments.”
Full text:  http://www.wcer.wisc.edu/publications/highlights/v13n3_summer01.swf


Early Academic Achievement of Hispanics in the United States:
Implications for Teacher Preparation

The New Educator. (2006).  E. E. Garcia, B. Jensen, & D. Cuéllar.
Distributed by the Foundation for Child Development, New York City.

“The three broad purposes of this paper are: (a) to describe what is currently known about early childhood education for Hispanic children in the United States; (b) to describe the educational background of pre-k teachers considering the finding that teacher education is a predictor of high quality pre-k programs; and (c) to suggest what might be done to expand and improve early childhood education, including the education of early childhood teachers, in ways that will help more Hispanic children become well prepared to start school and, subsequently, to be academically successful during the primary grades.”
Summary and click right for the full text:
http://www.fcd-us.org/resources/resources_show.htm?doc_id=463804

Educating School Teachers

The Education Schools Project, Washington DC. (2006).  A. Levine.

This report “provides an examination of the successes and failures of university-based teacher education programs, offers criteria for excellence on which to judge the quality of programs, and sets forth a comprehensive five-point plan for improving programs and changing teacher-education policy.  The report identifies several model teacher education programs at the nation’s 1,206 university-based education schools.   But the study found that too often teacher education programs cling to an outdated, historically flawed vision of teacher education that is at odds with a society remade by economic, demographic, technological, and global change.  Equally troubling, the nation is deeply divided about how to reform teacher education to most effectively prepare teachers to meet today’s new realities.”  The exemplary programs featured in the report are Alverno College, Milwaukee; Emporia State University, Kansas; Curry School of Education, University of Virginia; and the Stanford Teacher Education Program (STEP), California.
Executive summary, full text, and news release:
http://www.edschools.org/teacher_report.htm
Also see the reports on Educating School Leaders and on Educating Scholars and Researchers:
http://www.edschools.org/reports.htm

Explaining the Short Careers of High-Achieving Teachers
in Schools With Low-Performing Students
American Economic Review. (2005).  H. Lankford, S. Loeb, & J. Wyckoff.
Distributed by Teacher Policy Research, SUNY Albany and Stanford University.

The authors “examine New York City elementary school teachers’ decisions to stay in the same school, transfer to another school in the district, transfer to another district, or leave teaching in New York State during the first five years of their careers.  Their model allows them to go beyond past research in three important ways: examining how transfer and quit behavior is influenced by (a) interactions between teacher qualifications and school-level student achievement, (b) unobserved heterogeneity in teachers’ responses to school-level student attributes, and (c) the distance from new teachers’ prior homes to their initial job,”
Full text – Scroll down:
http://www.teacherpolicyresearch.org/ResearchPapers/tabid/103/Default.aspx

Have Minority Students Had a Fair Share of Quality Teachers?
Results from a  National Longitudinal Study
Poverty and Race. (2003).  J. Shen.
Poverty and Race Research Action Council, Washington DC.

Implementing the No Child Left Behind Teacher Requirements

Center on Education Policy, Washington DC. (2007).  J. McMurrer.

“This report examines how States and school districts have implemented the No Child Left Behind Act's teacher quality requirements.  The report finds that, according to State and district officials, the NCLB highly qualified teacher requirements have had minimal or no impact on student achievement and have not had a major impact on teacher effectiveness.  The report also discusses State and district implementation of the federal requirements to equitably distribute experienced, highly qualified teachers among higher and lower poverty schools.”
Full text:
http://www.cep-dc.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=document.showDocumentByID&nodeID=1&DocumentID=222

Linking School Working Conditions to Teacher Satisfaction and Success

National Clearinghouse for Educational Facilities, Washington DC. (2003).
M. Schneider.

“This study documents how a large sample of teachers in Chicago and Washington DC rate the working conditions in their schools and how they perceive these conditions affecting their job performance and teaching effectiveness.  School facilities have a direct affect on teaching and learning. Poor school conditions make it more difficult for teachers to deliver an adequate education to their students, adversely affect teachers' health, and increase the likelihood that teachers will leave their school and the teaching profession.”
Full text – Scroll under History and Research
http://www.edfacilities.org/pubs/index.cfm?Order=Category

Low-Income U.S. Children Less Likely to Have Access to Qualified Teachers 
ScienceDaily, Chevy Chase Maryland. (2008).
Summary of a University of Missouri Study.

“Children from low-income families in the United States do not have the same access to qualified teachers as do wealthier students, according to a University of Missouri study.  Compared to 46 countries, the United States had the fourth largest opportunity gap, the difference between students of high and low socioeconomic status in their access to qualified teachers. . . . Findings include:  (a)  29.7 percent of U.S. eighth grade math teachers did not major in mathematics or mathematics education; the international average is 13.2 percent; . . .  (b) nearly 40 percent of U.S. eighth graders do not have access to highly qualified (math) teachers; (c) in the United States, 67.6 percent of high-socioeconomic status students are taught by highly qualified teachers, compared with 53.2 percent of low-socioeconomic status students. This opportunity gap of 14.4 percent is significantly larger than the international average of 2.5 percent.”
Summary:  
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080123131519.htm


Missed Opportunities:
How We Keep High-Quality Teachers Out of Urban Classrooms
The New Teacher Project, New York City. (2003).  J. Levin & M. Quinn.

On Their Own and Presumed Expert:
New Teachers’ Experience With Their Colleagues

Teachers College Record, Columbia University, New York City. (2007).
S. M. Kardos & S. M. Johnson

“This study uses the concept of integrated professional culture to frame an inquiry about new teachers’ experiences at their schools and with their colleagues.  (It) examines the experiences of a representative random sample of 486 first- and second-year teachers surveyed in four states (California, Florida, Massachusetts, and Michigan). . . . The data revealed that many novice teachers report that their work is solitary, that they are expected to be prematurely expert and independent, and that their fellow teachers do not share a sense of collective responsibility for their school. In integrated professional cultures, new teachers interact with experienced colleagues in an ongoing way. However, the authors found that approximately one-half (in CA and MI) to two-thirds (in FL and MA) of new teachers generally plan and teach alone.”
Abstract (full text by membership or purchase):
http://www.tcrecord.org/Content.asp?ContentID=12812

Poor Working Conditions Make Urban Schools Hard to Staff
UC ACCORD:  All Campus Consortium on Research for Diversity,
University of California. (2005).  E. L. Horng.

Qualified Teachers for At-Risk Schools: A National Imperative
Inaugural Report from the National Partnership for Teaching in At-Risk Schools. (2005).
Distributed by the National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality,
Learning Point Associates, Naperville, Ohio. Washington DC.

Robbing Peter to Pay Paul: The Case Against “Comparability”
National Council on Teacher Quality, Washington DC. (2007).  K. Walsh

The author points out that “two proposals in the bill currently circulating to reauthorize No Child Left Behind seem to be shoe-ins for making their way into federal law. The impetus behind both proposals is to help poor kids by making sure that districts spend as much money on them as gets spent rich kids.”  The paper argues against comparability requirements and, particularly, the equitable distribution of teachers.  It focuses on choices that districts have for implementation and how these efforts for equity may not really benefit students in high-poverty communities and schools.
Full text  and overview (Op Ed) -- Scroll down:
http://www.nctq.org/p/publications/reports.jsp


Sharing the Wealth: National Board Certified Teachers
and the Students Who Need Them Most

Education Policy Analysis Archives (2005).  Arizona State University and
University of South Florida.  D. C. Humphrey, J. E. Koppich, & H. J. Hough.

“Part of a larger study of Board Certified Teachers in lower performing schools, the article examines the distribution of National Board Certified Teachers (NBCTs )in the six states with the largest number of them—California, Florida, Mississippi, North Carolina, Ohio, and South Carolina. The research finds that, with the exception of California, Board Certified Teachers are not equitably distributed across schools that serve different populations of students. In five of the six states examined, poor, minority, and lower performing students are far less likely to benefit from the teaching of an NBCT than are their more affluent, majority, higher performing peers. The article explores some possible explanations for the California distribution pattern as well as the kinds of incentives provided across the states for teachers to seek Board Certification and for those who earn it. The authors conclude with a rationale and a set of policy suggestions for realigning the distribution of NBCTs.
Full text:   http://epaa.asu.edu/epaa/v13n18/

“Improving teacher working conditions means more than focusing on resources, class sizes, and physical structures.  The current concept of working conditions must move beyond typical labor issues of occupational health and safety concerns to consider a more comprehensive environment for teaching and learning.  Recent teacher working conditions research includes measures to determine the effect of time allocation, empowerment, professional development, and leadership — complex issues now proven to be closely related to the capacity of professionals to improve student learning.”  These topics are examined in this InfoBrief.
Full text – Scroll down to October 2005: Conditions for Learning
http://www.ascd.org/portal/site/ascd/menuitem.c30040c1b9063eeeb85516f762108a0c/

Teachers’ Preferences for Where They Teach May Disadvantage Urban Schools
Summary of The Draw of Home: How Teachers’ Preferences for Proximity
Disadvantage Urban Schools.  Journal of Policy Analysis and Management (2005).  
D. Boyd, H. Lankford, S. Loeb, & J. Wyckoff.  
Summarized by the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Teaching in Changing Times:
Diverse Classrooms Challenge New Teachers’ Skills
Part 3 of Lessons Learned: New Teachers Talk About Their Jobs, Challenges,
and Long-Range Plans.  Public Agenda, New York City, and the National
Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality, Washington DC. (2008). 
J. Rochkind, A. Ott, J. Immerwahr, J. Doble, & J. Johnson

“The third in the Lessons Learned series of reports on new teachers finds two specific areas in which teacher training may be lacking: preparedness for the diversity of the contemporary American classroom and teaching students with special needs.  Seventy-six percent of new teachers said teaching an ethnically diverse student body was covered in their training, but only 39 percent said that training helps them a lot in the classroom.  The survey covered twelve areas of teacher training, ranging from direct instruction to the study of history, philosophy, and policy debates in public education.”
Full text:   http://www.publicagenda.org/reports/lessons-learned-issue-no-3-new-teachers-talk
-about-their-jobs-challenges-and-long-range-plans
Also see Report No. 1 – They’re Not Little Kids Anymore: Special Challenge of New Teachers in High Schools and Middle Schools:
http://www.publicagenda.org/reports/lessons-learned-new-teachers-talk
-about-their-jobs-challenges-and-long-range-plans-issue-no-1
And Report No. 2 – Working Without a Net (graduates of alternate programs):
http://www.publicagenda.org/reports/lessons-learned-new-teachers-talk
-about-their-jobs-challenges-and-long-range-plans-issue-no-2


Teaching Inequality: How Poor and Minority Students Are Shortchanged.
A Report and Recommendations by the Education Trust

The Education Trust, Washington DC. (2006)  H. G. Peske & K. Haycock.
Distributed by Teachers for a New Era, Carnegie Corporation of New York.

“Three Midwest states (Illinois, Ohio, and Wisconsin) and three school districts (Chicago, Cleveland, and Milwaukee) organized teams, in collaboration with Education Trust, to examine the distribution of teachers in their schools and propose solutions. . . . Together, teams of stakeholders in each jurisdiction collected data on teacher distribution and identified patterns.  In every case, they found large differences between the qualifications of teachers in the highest-poverty and highest-minority schools and teachers serving in schools with few minority and low-income students.  The teams then analyzed the information to determine possible reasons for the patterns, and came up with strategies to achieve a fairer distribution."  
Full text: http://www.teachersforanewera.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=publications.pubDetails&pub_id=618

The Continuing Challenge: Good Teachers for Disadvantaged Students
Citizens Commission on Civil Rights,   (2008).
W. L. Taylor,  D. M. Piché, & C. Rosario

The authors state that, among the school improvements indicated by the No Child Left Behind Act, “none is more important than upgrading the quality of teaching for students in the poorest public schools. . . . The law requires that the States “ensure that poor and minority children are not taught at higher rates than other children by inexperienced, unqualified or out-of-field teachers.”  For the federal government to mandate a course of action is one thing.  But if states and school districts do not translate policy into action and if the federal government does not take steps to monitor and enforce its policy, the statutory words on paper will be unavailing.”  This report reviews the federal requirements and States’ responses, with conclusions and recommendations.
Full text:  http://www.cccr.org/publications/index.cfm


The Effects of School Facility Quality on Teacher Retention in Urban School Districts
21st Century School Fund, Washington DC. (2004).
J. Buckley, M. Schneider, & Y. Shang.
Distributed by the National Clearinghouse For Educational Facilities

The Narrowing Gap in New York City Teacher Qualifications and Its Implications for Student Achievement in High-Poverty Schools
Teaching Pathways Project. State University of New York at Albany. (2008).
D. Boyd, S. Loeb, S. Wyckoff, H. Lankford, & J. Rockoff

Disparities in teacher  qualifications figure prominently in most educational policy discussions and are a central feature of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. . . . Assessment-based accountability policies at the State level have created standards and increased oversight of schools, especially those with low-achieving students.  New routes into teaching, many with fewer requirements before teaching, have changed the cost for individuals to enter the teaching profession. These changes have affected teacher labor markets profoundly. . . . (The authors) examine three questions: (a) how has the distribution of teaching qualifications between schools with concentrations of poor students and those with more affluent students changed over the last five years?  (b) what effects are the changes in observed teacher qualifications likely to have on student achievement?  (c) what implications do these findings have for improving policies and programs aimed at recruiting highly effective teachers.
Policy brief and full text – Scroll down:  
http://www.teacherpolicyresearch.org/ResearchPapers/tabid/103/Default.aspx

The Organization of Schools as an Overlooked Source of Underqualified Teaching
Teaching Quality Policy Briefs. (2002).  Center for the Study of Teaching and Policy, Consortium for Policy Research in Education, University of Washington. 
R. M. Ingersoll

The Race Connection

Education Next. (2004).  T. S. Dee.  Hoover Institution, Washington DC.

“In this article, the authors consider three sources of support for new teachers—hiring practices, relationships with colleagues, and curriculum — all found in earlier research to influence new teachers’ satisfaction with their work, their sense of success with students, and their eventual retention in their job.  They find that a ‘support gap’ exists: new teachers in low-income schools are less likely than their counterparts in high-income schools to experience timely and information-rich hiring, to benefit from mentoring and support by experienced colleagues, and to have a curriculum that is complete and aligned with State standards, yet flexible for use in the classroom.  Such patterns of difference between high-income and low-income schools warrant careful consideration because they reveal broad patterns of inequity, which can have severe consequences for low-income students.  Survey data for this study were collected from random samples of teachers in five States.”
Full text:   http://epaa.asu.edu/epaa/v12n61/

Their Fair Share:  How Texas-Sized Gaps in Teacher Quality Shortchange
Poor and Minority Students
The Education Trust, Washington DC. (2008).
With support from the Broad Foundation.

According to The Education Trust, “instead of providing these students with the kind of teachers they need to catch up to other students, low-income, Hispanic and African-American students in Texas are: (a) less likely to be assigned to fully certified teachers; (b) less likely to be in classrooms with experienced teachers; and (c) less likely to attend a school with a stable teaching force. . . . Through this website, you'll learn more about the teacher quality and salary gaps in the 50 largest school districts in Texas.”  This includes a February 2008 report (Their Fair Share) and a searchable database of the 50 largest Texas districts.
Home page:    http://www.theirfairshare.org/


Unintended Consequences:  The Case for Reforming the Staffing
Rules in Urban Teachers Union Contracts
The New Teacher Project, New York City. (2005).
J. Levin, J. Mulhern, & J. Schunck.

Who Stays in Teaching and Why?
A Review of the Literature on Teacher Retention

NRTA: AARP’s Education Community. (2004).
Prepared by the Project on the Next Generation of Teachers,
Harvard Graduate School of Education, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

This paper “considers research that provides insight into problems of teacher shortage and turnover, offers a comprehensive explanation for why some able teachers leave the classroom prematurely, and suggests current strategies for increasing retention rates. . . . Each section addresses a topic that is relevant to the challenge of retaining a strong and effective teaching force:  Preparation, Hiring, Compensation, Working Conditions and School Community.  After reviewing findings of research on each topic, the sections conclude with suggestions on future directions for research that will inform policy and practice.”
Full text:    http://www.aarp.org/nrta/teaching.html

Why Do High-Poverty Schools Have Difficulty Staffing Qualified Teachers?
Center for American Progress and Institute for America’s Future.
Washington DC. (2004).  R. M. Ingersoll.

Return to main menu: Achievement Gaps, Diversity, and Disproportionality
http://www.rrfcnetwork.org/content/view/195/47/