Effective teachers have an enormous impact on the lives of students. Research shows that teachers are the most important “within-school” influence on student achievement. As such, ensuring student access to effective teachers can potentially a powerful tool in addressing the achievement gap. Without equitable access to great teachers and leaders for all students, any education reform effort will be unsuccessful.
Unfortunately, across the United States, many education systems have persistent teacher equity gaps, in which low income or minority students are more likely to be assigned to ineffective, novice, and out-of-field teachers.
DC is at the forefront of innovation and rigor in developing policies to improve teacher quality. Yet even as the average level of instruction and student achievement has improved, there continue to be gaps in students’ access to effective teachers, particularly for students of high poverty and minority students. Data released in 2013 revealed that schools in the District’s Wards 7 and 8, which serve the highest proportions of students in poverty, have significantly less access to highly effective teachers than schools in the more affluent wards in DC.
To ensure that all children receive a high-quality education, the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) requires state education agencies (SEAs) and local education agencies (LEAs) to report on and work to close teacher equity gaps. Thus, LEAs and SEAs must work together to identify and address any disparities that result from low-income and minority students being served disproportionately by ineffective, out-of-field, or inexperienced teachers. LEA plans must address how the LEAs will work to address these disparities where they exist.
Download the DC Equitable Access Plan
OSSE Guidance and Rubrics (updated spring 2019)
- OSSE’s Local Education Agency Equity Plan Template and Related Guidance provides the template for completing LEA Equity Plans and LEA Equity Plan Updates.
- OSSE’s LEA Equity Plan Rubric provides the rubric used to provide feedback on LEA Equity Plans.
- OSSE’s Local Education Agency Equity Gap Calculation Guidance provides the methodology for identifying equity gaps.
- The ESSA DC State Education Plan continues equitable access efforts by identifying citywide teacher equity gaps, noting root causes of these gaps, and documenting ongoing strategies for addressing them.
Supports and Resources for LEAs
District of Columbia LEA Equity Toolkit: Overview
To support District of Columbia LEAs in better understanding and addressing the challenges they face in providing equitable access to excellent teachers, OSSE has developed the District of Columbia Teacher Equity Toolkit, in partnership with the Center on Great Teachers and Leaders.
The DC Equity Toolkit provides LEA and school leaders with a series of optional resources for understanding, interpreting, planning, and collaborating around teacher equity. It applies national research and best practices around SEA and LEA equitable access work, bringing lessons from the field to the local DC education and policy context.
Each resource in the toolkit is aligned to OSSE’s 2018 Equity Plan Template and Related Guidance. It is our hope that the toolkit will:
- Guide and assist LEAs in building impactful equity plans
- Support the alignment of equity efforts and LEA planning
- Contribute to increasing equitable access to excellent educators
Equity Toolkit: Resources
Resources
- Section 1: Analyzing and Prioritizing Equity Gaps –This resource provides guidance around unpacking equity data, identifying which aspects of the data are most important, and setting meaningful goals for closing gaps.
- Section 2: Analyzing Root Causes – This resource provides guidance for conducting a root cause analysis that identifies underlying causes contributing to teacher equity gaps.
- Section 3: Strategies for Eliminating Equity Gaps – This resource provides guidance on identifying and selecting promising strategies to the address root causes of equity gaps, within the context of a theory of action.
- Section 4: Developing a Monitoring Plan – This resource provides guidance and resources for assessing progress and supporting implementation.
- Sample LEA Equity Plan: This resource provides an example LEA Equity Plan, built for a fictional DC LEA.
Technical Assistance
Please reach out to any of the contacts listed at the bottom of this page for the following types of technical assistance:
- Plan Building Support
- Data Support
Contacts
OSSE, Division of Teaching and Learning
- Rose Goff, [email protected]
- Laura Montas, [email protected]
Data Staffing Collaborative
- TNTP, [email protected]
- [PDF] This document is presented in Portable Document Format (PDF). A PDF reader is required for viewing.
