States: What’s Your Plan for Ensuring Fair Access to Quality Teaching?
Strong teachers are key to raising achievement and closing gaps, but not all children have the same access to those teachers. Low-income students and students of color are less likely than their white and middle-class peers to have experienced, in-field, and effective teachers.
Federal law requires states to end these disparities. But as most hiring, compensation, and promotional decisions — not to mention choices about school working conditions — are made at the district or school levels — what can states really do? Ensuring Equitable Access to Strong Teachers: Important Elements of an Effective State Action Plan is our answer to that question.
Drawing on salient themes and questions that emerged in reviewing a number of state plans, talking with state officials, and reviewing our longstanding work and advocacy in this area, this guide suggests concrete steps for states to:
- Analyze data in ways that build understanding and urgency;
- Disseminate results to build stakeholder buy-in and connect identified gaps to underlying root causes; and
- Create policies to spur action and progress