Underlying Causes of Equity Gaps

All stakeholders should conduct a strategic review of data to determine root causes of equity gaps.  The GTL Center's Root-Cause Analysis Workbook provides a step-by-step process.

  1. Specify the challenges to be addressed. 
  2. Identify root causes.
  3. Categorize the causes.
  4. Visualize your causes and categories.
  5. Determine strategies for educator talent development.
  6. Create a theory of action.
  7. Determine how to measure progress. 

Contact the Center on Great Teachers and Leaders if you would like us to facilitate a work group in your state or region to conduct a root cause analysis. 

Following are some examples of root causes of equity gaps. 

Teachers:

Faulty Pipelines. Difficulty filling vacancies with great teachers because of:

  • Low interest in teaching as a profession in general among top students
  • Prep programs that do not supply enough good teachers in needed subject areas
  • Prep programs that do not supply enough good teachers able to work in high-need schools or with tough-to-reach students
  • Late hiring timelines
  • Seniority-based transfer and reduction-in-force policies
  • Poor leadership quality, which hurts recruitment
  • Poor working conditions, which hurt recruitment
  • Lack of teacher leadership opportunities, which hurts recruitment
  • Low salaries, which hurt recruitment

High Churn. Trouble retaining great teachers because of:

  • Lack of career advancement opportunities
  • Poor leadership quality
  • Poor working conditions
  • Low salaries and other benefits
  • Location–teachers transfer closer to where they prefer to live
  • Student discipline challenges
  • Teacher retirements (aging population)

Ineffective Deployment. Trouble growing or/maximizing the effectiveness of current teachers in high-need schools because of:

  • Misassignment within schools (e.g., assigning novice teachers to low-performing students)
  • Teacher preferences for working within higher tracked classes within the same schools
  • Parent demands (e.g., for tracking, good teachers, small class sizes, tradition)
  • Underuse of technology or alternative staffing arrangements to extend reach/access
  • Lack of professional development supports (including induction)
  • Performance-blind human capital management policies
  • Poor leadership quality undermining effectiveness
  • Poor teaching and learning conditions undermining effectiveness
  • Lack of fieldwide understanding of good teaching for diverse learners in the age of the Common Core

Principals:

All stakeholders should consider (using data where possible) whether any or all of the following potential causes of equity gaps are primarily responsible for the inequity in access to great school leaders.

Faulty Pipelines. Difficulty filling vacancies with great leaders because of:

  • Low interest in the principalship as a profession in general among top students
  • Prep programs that do not supply enough good leaders in needed subject areas
  • Prep programs that do not supply enough good leaders able to work in high-need schools or with hard-to-reach students
  • Late hiring timelines
  • Seniority-based transfer and reduction-in-force policies
  • Poor working conditions, which hurt recruitment
  • Low salaries, which hurt recruitment

High Churn. Trouble retaining great leaders because of:

  • Lack of career advancement opportunities
  •  Poor working conditions
  • Low salaries and other benefits
  • Location—leaders transfer closer to where they prefer to live
  • Student discipline challenges
  • Principal retirements (aging population)

Ineffective Deployment. Trouble growing/maximizing effectiveness of current leaders in high-need schools because of:

  • Lack of support for distributed leadership
  • Lack of professional development supports (including principal induction)
  • Performance-blind human capital management policies
  • Poor supervisor quality undermining effectiveness
  • Poor teaching and learning conditions undermining effectiveness