The distribution of highest-performing teachers across schools is statistically unlikely to be random, with significance for middle school teachers on both poverty and achievement groupings but for elementary teachers only on achievement groupings¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · associational r2 · q2
Currency · newest study 2011 · checked against its sources 2026-10-20 (automated, 1 of 1 entry) · not reviewed by a person · overdue for a recheck since 2016: baselines and conditions change

Subclaims¶

q2 i? Chi-square tests of independence reject a uniform distribution of highest-performing teachers across school quintiles for middle school math and ELA on both poverty and achievement groupings, and for elementary teachers only when schools are grouped by achievement quintile. → Steven Glazerman and Jeffrey Max 2011

Evidence¶

Steven Glazerman and Jeffrey Max 2011¶

Steven Glazerman and Jeffrey Max. (2011). Do Low-Income Students Have Equal Access to the Highest-Performing Teachers? NCEE Technical Appendix. http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/pubs/20114016/pdf/20114016.pdf

q2 · i? · associational · r2

Chi-square independence tests of teacher status by school quintile using district administrative data from ten districts, with all-district combined p-values shown in Table A.2 (elementary poverty .176; middle school math and ELA .000 on both groupings). The article reports that "The distribution of highest -performing middle school teachers differed significantly from a uniform distribution".

"The distribution of highest -performing middle school teachers differed significantly from a uniform distribution when comparing schools by achievement and poverty. However, the results fo r elementary teachers are only significant when the schools were grouped by school achievement quintile."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• Main results are robust to grouping schools into four poverty quartiles instead of five quintiles — related
• The most extreme district disparity: District A's high-poverty middle schools had about 1 in 20 highest-performing math teachers versus about 12 in 20 in the lowest-poverty quintile — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
• District G shows the opposite pattern: highest-poverty elementary schools were most likely to have highest-performing teachers — related
• Across ten districts combined, elementary schools show no statistically significant difference from an equitable distribution of highest-performing teachers — related
• Across ten districts combined, high-poverty middle schools have significantly fewer highest-performing teachers than low-poverty middle schools — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
• Teacher mobility behavior is heterogeneous across the teacher performance distribution — related
• Elementary under-representation of highest-performing teachers appears in 4 of 8 districts despite the aggregate null — related