Incorporate teachers' variation in effectiveness by student race into district and school policy decisions, including matching teachers to students and targeting professional development¶

Strategy · All strategies
Evidence · no claims cited

Description¶

The brief recommends that "school districts and school principals could incorporate teachers' variation in effectiveness for students of different races into their policy decisions," as a complement to typical value-added measures. It further suggests identifying teachers contributing to equity to learn about their practices, targeting professional development at teachers who are widening achievement gaps, and matching teachers to students based on effectiveness with different groups. It stresses the measure must be used responsibly and with caution.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Obtaining the comparative advantage measure requires the same information used to compute value-added measures, is readily available, and has no additional cost; precision may require multiple years of data or other teacher-quality measures.

Constraints¶

• The same criticisms raised for teacher value-add measures may apply to comparative advantage; small sample problems are compounded when student-type-specific teacher effects are estimated with small sets of students.

Target Learners¶

• Black and non-Black K-12 students in elementary and middle grades

Target Learning Goals¶

• Improving average achievement and reducing racial achievement gaps in math and English

Affordances¶

• Revealed Comparative Advantage Teacher Measure

Related Strategies¶

Examples¶

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Key Sources¶

• Delgado, W. (2023). Is the Best Teacher the Best for Everyone? Variation of Teacher Effectiveness by Student Race. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Consortium on School Research. https://consortium.uchicago.edu/publications/is-the-best-teacher-the-best-for-everyone