Funding Disparities and the Inequitable Distribution of Teachers: Evaluating Sources and Solutions

Abstract

Abstract:The inequitable distribution of well-qualified teachers to students in the United States is a longstanding issue. Despite federal mandates under the No Child Left Behind Act and the use of a range of incentives to attract teachers to high-need schools, the problem remains acute in many states. This study examines how and why teacher quality is inequitably distributed, by reviewing research and examining data on school funding, salaries, and teacher qualifications from California and New York-two large states that face similar demographic diversity and educational challenges. Using wage adjustments to control for cost of living differentials, we find that both overall school funding and teacher salary levels are highly inequitable both across and within states -generally exhibiting a ratio of 3 to 1 between high-and low-spending jurisdictions. Furthermore, low-salary districts serve students with higher needs, offer poorer working conditions, and hire teachers with significantly lower qualifications, who typically exhibit higher turnover. We find that districts serving the highest proportions of minority and low-income students have about twice as many uncredentialed and inexperienced teachers as do those serving the fewest. In an elasticity analysis, we find that increases in teacher salaries are associated with noticeable decreases in the proportions of teachers who are newly hired, uncredentialed, or less well educated. These teacher qualifications, in turn, are associated with student achievement, holding student characteristics constant. We review research on strategies that have been largely unsuccessful at addressing this problem, such as epaa aapeFunding disparities and the inequitable distribution of teachers 2 "combat pay" intended to recruit teachers to high need schools, suggesting that small bonuses might be productive if added to an equitable salary structure where working conditions are comparable, but may be inadequate to compensate for large differentials in salaries and working conditions. We review studies illustrating successful policy strategies in states that have taken a more systemic approach to equalizing salaries, raising teaching standards, and providing supports for teacher learning and school development. We recommend federal initiatives that could provide stronger supports and incentives for equalizing students' access to well-qualified and effective teachers, including equalizing allocations of ESEA resources across states, enforcing existing ESEA comparability provisions for ensuring equitable funding and equally qualified teachers to schools serving different populations of students, evaluating progress on resource equity in state plans and evaluations under the law, and requiring states to meet standards of resource equity -including the availability of well-qualified teachers -for schools identified as in need of improvement. Keywords: teacher salaries, school funding, teacher qualifications, inequality, teacher distribution Disparidades de financiamiento y la distribuc...

Ecologies of education quality

“…Both VA and CLASS, as measures of outcome and process quality, are negatively related to the density of students living in poverty in a school (see Table 5). This, too, is congruent with previous research that finds that students in low-income schools receive lower quality instruction and as a result, have lower achievement (Adamson & Darling-Hammond, 2012;Burchinal et al, 2011). At the level of an individual classroom, the relation between classroom quality (CLASS) and teacher quality (VA) was weaker than at the school level (see Table 6).…”

Reciprocal Dialogue Between Educational Decision Makers and Students of Color

“…As mentioned above, the manifestations of systemic racism may include inequitable access 816 Educational Administration Quarterly 50 (5) to experienced teachers and college preparatory courses. To this list may be added funding inequalities, disproportionate overcrowding in schools serving some groups of Students of Color, differential access to computer science curriculum, and more (Adamson & Darling-Hammond, 2012;Fanelli et al, 2010;Margolis, 2008). In this study, then, the concept of Third Space must be considered in light of systemic racism in education.…”

Inquiry on Teachers’ Emotion

“…3 If this is so, among those 300,000 teachers that began their teaching careers in 2010, only 90,000 to 150,000 will still be teaching by 2015. Estimates of teacher attrition are substantially higher in schools that serve students of color and English language learners (Adamson & Darling-Hammond, 2012;Jacob, 2007). Excessive teacher turnover is problematic in that it results in lost revenue from the cost of professional development for new teachers and dissolves relationships with families, the community, and the school.…”

“…These researchers have shown that that districts with students of color in low-income schools tend to hire late in the process (Engel, 2009;Levin & Quinn, 2003). The tendency to hire late in summer contributes to the findings that districts with students of color in low-income schools are more likely to have uncertified and/or underprepared teachers as compared to students in predominantly White and more affluent schools (Adamson & Darling-Hammond, 2012;Darling-Hammond, 2010). In other words, the later schools hire, the more likely it is that the most experienced and qualified teachers who are looking for jobs have already accepted positions in other school districts.…”

“…Late hirelings can, in part, be tied to issues such as low and uncertain budgets, uncertainty as to the number of students, and the transfer of more experienced to other school districts (Engel, 2009;Levin & Quinn, 2003). As such, due to these social historical constraints, it is not surprising that teachers tend to leave at higher rates in schools that serve students of color and English language learners (Adamson & Darling-Hammond, 2012;Jacob, 2007).…”