As Deadline Looms, Report Says States Showing Little Progress in Addressing Teacher Quality

By tomorrow, all states must submit revised plans to the federal government detailing what they plan to do during the coming school year to meet the teacher quality requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act, including specific steps they will take to ensure that poor and minority students are not taught by inexperienced, unqualified, or out-of-field teachers at higher rates than other children.

But a study released today by the Washington-based Citizens’ Commission on Civil Rights, an education watchdog group, cautions that to date most states have made minimal progress in addressing the teacher quality provisions in NCLB, particularly the teacher equity requirements that have been poorly enforced by the federal government.

The report, “Days of Reckoning: Are States and the Federal Government Up to the Challenge of Ensuring a Qualified Teacher for Every Student?” is based on an analysis of site reviews that the U.S. Department of Education conducted in 40 states starting in mid-2004 to determine whether states were complying with the...