Teacher effectiveness is typically measured by traditional teacher qualification standards, such as experience, education, and scores on licensure examinations. RAND researchers found no evidence that these standards have a substantial effect on student achievement in Los Angeles public elementary, middle, and high schools. Alternative measures of…

Understanding what makes an effective teacher, as well as how teachers sort by their effectiveness across schools, is central to understanding and addressing student achievement gaps. Prior studies have found substantial sorting of teachers across schools, with the schools with the highest proportions of poor, non-white, and low-scoring students…

This article presents a new notion of teacher "quality" and defines the progressive outcomes upon which urban teacher preparation might be founded. The paper includes a description of the masters licensure program with which the authors are involved and the program's portfolio system that assesses future urban teachers' integration of this social…

This article examines the effectiveness of a 1-year full-time credential program in recruiting, preparing, and retaining elementary, secondary, and special education teachers for urban schools. The program was designed to restructure teacher education as a shared school-university responsibility and to reflect best teacher preparation practices…

Eric Hanushek and Steven Rivkin examine how salary and working conditions affect the quality of instruction in the classroom. The wages of teachers relative to those of other college graduates have fallen steadily since 1940. Today, average wages differ little, however, between urban and suburban districts. In some metropolitan areas urban…

This book is a short edited volume that brings together in one place, the best scholarly articles in charter schooling by national experts and leaders, written in a user-friendly fashion. It is the ideal introduction for those interested in the charter school movement with numerous insights for and by charter operators, administrators, and…

Today, one out of four American children attends school in an urban district; one out of every six American children lives in poverty; and, in urban schools where most of the students are poor, two-thirds or more of the children fail to reach even the "basic" level of achievement on national tests. Urban schools are where most states…

Urban schools across the United States face a pervasive problem in their science and mathematics programs-a disproportionate number of the teachers in these classrooms are not certified, thus making them underqualified to teach these subject areas. Furthermore, urban schools deal with teacher shortages and attrition in these critical areas. The…

As schools attempt to accommodate an increasing range of students with disabilities, linguistic differences, or other unique requirements, teachers worry about their preparation to deal with these differences. General education teachers do not always have the necessary background. Special education teachers may have only limited knowledge about…