Study Critical of NCLB's Teacher Quality Provisions

A report released by the Civil Rights Project at Harvard University shows that the federal "No Child Left Behind" education law's teacher quality provisions do little to address the primary barriers to attracting and retaining quality teachers in classrooms serving low-income and minority students.

NCLB recognizes that teacher quality is important to improving student achievement, but the new report says the professional development on which the law relies is "insufficient" to attract and retain quality teachers and to get them in the schools and classrooms where they are needed the most. Professional development is mainly how the law addresses teacher quality.

"Moreover, the sanctions attached to the NCLB adequate yearly progress requirements create an additional disincentive for highly qualified teachers to remain in high-poverty schools," according to the report's executive summary.

The report's recommendations for improving NCLB to make it more effective in assuring a high quality teacher for every student include:

• Direct federal and state incentives for improving teacher quality to high-poverty areas.
• Encourage states and districts to develop and support programs that create economic and racial diversity in the public schools.
• Provide additional federal funds to assist states to develop the technological infrastructure necessary to track teacher quality over time and manage the increased data collection responsibilities.
• Monitor other indicators of teacher quality in addition to the NCLB measures and assess the distribution of these characteristics across schools and districts.
• Reform the No Child Left Behind Act teacher quality provisions to expand the definition of a qualified teacher to include experience.
• Reform the No Child Left Behind Act to create recognition and rewards for teachers that make a difference and for schools that make improvement.

An executive summary and the full report are available online.

The Civil Rights Project is a leading organization devoted to civil rights research. Previous work related to NCLB includes a series of four reports that show the law's sanctions are falling especially hard on disadvantaged and minority students and schools and a survey confirming that teachers want to achieve NCLB's goals of closing the achievement gap, but recognize that it will take resources for programs that work.

May 2005