School equity: Are schools reinforcing achievement gaps?

It's like chocolate and peanut butter, love and marriage, Abercrombie and Fitch. It should be, anyway.

If highly qualified teachers have such positive effects on student achievement, and if we're serious about school equity and tackling achievement gaps between different demographic groups, it only makes sense to make sure highly qualified teachers are hired in schools where more kids are likely to struggle.

But that's not what happens, as studies show (and what I've heard from local educators). More often, you'll find a district's teaching all-stars at relatively well-heeled schools.

The teachers who outperform their peers on certification exams, the teachers with more training and experience, all are more likely to be hired at schools with fewer students in poverty - those kids statistically more likely to struggle - and to stay at those desirable posts.

Now a new study suggests less-qualified teachers may be more likely assigned to work with lower-achieving students at the building level, too.

The study, published in this month's Sociology of Education, a peer-reviewed publication of the American Sociological Association, looked at teacher qualifications and class assignments at one of the country's largest public school districts.

They found that even within school buildings, teachers with less experience, and those who went to less-competitive colleges, were more likely to be assigned to work with lower-achieving students. Teachers who had more than 10 years experience or who had held leadership positions were much more likely to be assigned to the building's higher-performing kids.

This was true at every grade level, researchers found, but it was especially pronounced at the middle and high schools.

If the pattern holds true for Iowa schools, we could unwittingly be reinforcing achievement gaps even as we try to erase them; could be encouraging teacher turnover, pushing new educators out before they really learn the business rather than fostering professional growth.

I wouldn't be the first to point out that research uncovers tendencies, not destinies. These are tendencies school leaders should actively resist.

They can start by reviewing teacher assignments within their own districts. By developing a plan to match highly qualified teachers with lower-performing students and targeting less qualified teachers for extra support.

Comments: (319) 339-3154; jennifer.hemmingsen@sourcemedia.net