Misdiagnosing the Teacher Quality Problem

Abstract

Few educational issues have received more attention in recent times than the problem of ensuring that our nation's elementary and secondary classrooms are all staffed with quality teachers. There is consensus that the quality of teachers and teaching matter-and undoubtedly are among the most important factors shaping the learning and growth of students. Moreover, there is consensus that serious problems exist with the quality of teachers and teaching in the United States. Beyond that, however, there appears to be little consensus and much disagreement-especially over what teacher quality entails and what the sources of, and solutions to, the problem might be.This issue of CPRE Policy Briefs summarizes the findings on issues related to teacher quality in the chapter authored by me in the book, The State of Education Policy Research (Cohen, Fuhrman, Mosher, Eds., 2007). This report also draws on discussions that took place during a summer, 2006, policy briefing on teacher labor-market issues held in Chicago and sponsored by the Spencer Foundation.In this brief, I will briefly discuss three related diagnoses and their attendant prescriptions: restrictive occupational entry barriers; teacher shortages; and underqualified/underprepared teachers. These diagnoses are not the only explanations for the problem of low quality of teachers and teaching. Nor are these views universally held-indeed, each is the subject of much contention-and proponents of one are at times opponents of another. But all are prominent views, all are part of the conventional wisdom as to what ails teaching, and all have had an impact on research, reform, and policy.

What’s so important about teachers’ working conditions? The fatal flaw in North American educational reform

“…Studies that have investigated why teachers leave teaching (e.g. Ingersoll 2007;McLaughlin and Yee 1988;Quartz, Lyons, and Thomas 2005) clearly identify the quality of teaching conditions as the difference between teachers' willingness to stay or leave.…”

“…Research suggests that they are dependent on decisions and factors that arise from a range of locations: on broad social values, provincial/state and local district policy frameworks as well as school-level administrative actions and community and school ethos -in other words, that teachers' working conditions are contingent on their location within a 'nested' context (Bascia 1994;Talbert and McLaughlin 1994). While analysts have characterized these conditions in terms of contributing to 'workplace quality' (Ingersoll 2007), and 'professional teaching environments ' (e.g. Louis 1992;Oakes 1989), they remain ambiguous as policy targets.…”

“…Yet teachers continue to express concern and dissatisfaction through their union representatives and, especially in the US, the exit of many credentialed teachers from teaching, particularly from poorly resourced, high-poverty schools (Ingersoll 2004(Ingersoll , 2007Quartz, Lyons, and Thomas 2005). In Canada and the US, educational decision makers tend to dismiss teachers' concerns about their working conditions, not understanding them as relevant to the quality of teaching and learning processes.…”

Scrambling the Nest Egg: How Well Do Teachers Understand Their Pensions, and What Do They Think about Alternative Pension Structures?

“…They argue over how pre-service training, certification policy, professional development, compensation and, more recently, human resource management practices can better impact the teacher workforce (Corcoran 2007;Ingersoll 2007;Odden, Milanowski, and Heneman 2007).…”

Two Contrasting Models for Mentoring as They Affect Retention of Beginning Teachers

“…School administrators suffer from a "revolving door" problem, with numerous new teachers continually entering and leaving the teaching profession (Brill & McCartney, 2008;Ingersoll, 2004Ingersoll, , 2007Wilkinson, 2009). High turnover rates, particularly among these beginning teachers, can hinder the successful implementation of collaboration and professional development (Martin, 2008), which stands to affect the quality of instruction and student learning (Guin, 2004).…”