Why did the New York City school district once have the lowest ratio of minority teachers to minority students of any large urban school system in the country? Using an array of historical sources, this provocative book explores the barriers that African American and Latino candidates faced in attempting to become public school teachers in New…

As necessary as reading is to the success of a child--and entire nations--many low-income countries overlook the fundamental duty of their school systems to produce readers. Galvanized by the Education For All (EFA) mission to provide universal access to primary education by 2015, donors and low-income countries have focused on scaling up inputs…

This study focuses on a critical aspect of the vocational education and training (VET) workforce: initial VET teacher training. It has identified the generic teacher education courses offered both by the VET and higher education sectors, ranging from the Certificate IV in Training and Assessment (now the Certificate IV in Training and Education)…

Untrained teachers are deployed in basic schools in many developing countries as a measure to address enrolment escalation; minimising the financial burden on the government, much of whose education budget is already a recurrent cost. However, there has been little research into untrained teachers. Employing a mixed-methods approach, this article…

Throughout the second half of the nineteenth century, the cultural panorama in Portugal was largely dominated by education issues. The awareness of the weaknesses of the Portuguese education system was now based on a growing interest in statistics, which allowed the reinforcement of arguments regarding the country's backwardness and the need to…

One can't throw a stone without hitting a STEM initiative these days, but most science, technology, engineering, and math initiatives--thus the STEM acronym--overlook a fundamental problem. In general, the workforce pipeline of elementary school teachers fails to ensure that the teachers who inform children's early academic trajectories have the…

Early-care and education research, relative to positive outcomes for young children, birth through age five, enrolled in high quality early-care and education programs is compelling. This same research also names the classroom teacher as pivotal in establishing and maintaining high quality within their classrooms and practices. Currently, within…

Every now and then the feminisation of the teaching force is put forth as a barrier to reduce educational equality between the sexes. The feminisation of education is supposed to have a negative impact on boys' achievement, causing educational as well as behavioural problems. It is not just boys who allegedly suffer; over the years, the…

This article describes features, consistent messages, and new components of "Mathematics Teaching Today: Improving Practice, Improving Student Learning" (NCTM 2007), an updated edition of "Professional Standards for Teaching Mathematics" (NCTM 1991). The new book describes aspects of high-quality mathematics teaching; offers a model for observing,…

Students who take classes in education departments at universities receive significantly higher grades than students who take classes in other academic departments. The higher grades awarded by education departments cannot be explained by differences in student quality or by structural differences across departments (i.e., differences in class…

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between the size of high schools, their percentage of SED (socio-economic disadvantaged) students, and API (academic performance index) scores in California, and determine if teacher preparation is a contributing factor. The 2010 API scores and median income of all 52 counties, and the 2010…

Federal law mandates that all teachers, including special educators, must be highly qualified by meeting standards for licensure in the academic content areas they teach. This provision has an impact on prospective and practicing teachers, on schools and school systems, and on colleges and universities, especially those in rural areas. This study…

Researchers have investigated the impact of teacher education and experience on child care quality; however, findings have been inconsistent. This study used archived data originating from Pennsylvania's Keystone STARS program. The sample included 617 infant or toddler classrooms with 1356 teachers and 887 preschool classrooms with 1915 teachers.…

We use data on statewide end-of-course tests in North Carolina to examine the relationship between teacher credentials and student achievement at the high school level. We find compelling evidence that teacher credentials, particularly licensure and certification, affects student achievement in systematic ways and that the magnitudes are large…

When New Jersey set out to level the educational playing field between the state's poorest and wealthiest school districts a decade ago, one of the mission's most important components was ensuring teacher quality met the same high standards regardless of zip code. Research shows, a teacher's own education and training in early childhood education…