Do Low-Income Students Have Equal Access to the Highest Performing Teachers?

This brief examines 10 districts across seven states and describes student access to the highest performing teachers. The researchers found that low-income students had unequal access to each district’s highest performing teachers at the middle school level. These results were not consistent at the elementary level. The researchers also found that there is evidence of variation in teacher access within the 10 districts studied, showing an underrepresentation of high-performing teachers in individual high-poverty elementary and middle schools and in others only at the middle school level.