Equitable Access

This interactive tool by Education Trust provides data that can drive leaders to do better for all students, especially for students from low-income families, students of color, and English learners. The tool provides data at the state-level on critical measures of educational opportunity and achievement from preschool through higher education.

This New America report explores Illinois’ approach to serving students who are English Language Learners (EL), looking at strengths and challenges related to these EL student outcomes and how the state approaches these challenges in their Every Student Succeeds Act ESSA plans using a New America framework.

In this brief, Achieve outlines a state-by-state comparison of early warning indicator systems. These systems measure aspects of 9^th grade student performance to determine if students are ‘on track’ for future academic success or are at risk for dropping-out. The brief outlines how states have included these early warning ‘on track’ indicators into accountability and data efforts in their Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) plans.

In this brief guide, the National Council on Teacher Quality highlights best practices from 34 state plans for ensuring compliance with the Every Student Succeeds Act’s educator equity requirements. It identifies best practices in key areas, including definitions of inexperienced and ineffective teachers; data analysis; and timelines and strategies for identifying and eliminating educator equity gaps.

This paper presents findings from an analysis using student-level data over ten years to investigate the long-term impact of students having teachers of the same race in elementary grades.  Findings indicate that having a black teacher in grades 3-5 significantly reduces the likelihood of black male students, particularly those most economically disadvantaged, of dropping out of high school, and increases the likelihood that low-income black male and female students aspire to attend four-year colleges.

This study by the Fordham Institute investigated whether districts are able to dismiss ineffective teachers who have tenure or veteran status. The authors report that in most districts, performance-based dismissal of tenured teachers is difficult, and if pursued is extremely vulnerable to challenge and thus can take years to achieve.

This CALDER study uses longitudinal data to examine gaps in teacher quality over time between advantaged and disadvantaged students in North Carolina and Washington. The report finds that teacher quality gaps have always existed, but the size of the gaps have varied over time and been driven by different dynamics, including changing student demographics and teacher mobility.