Chapter 10: Disproportional Assignment: The Need for Strategic, Equity-Forward Student–Teacher Classroom Rostering

Despite convincing evidence that the academic outcomes of students are highly dependent on the quality of teachers to whom they are assigned, schools do not regularly use information about teacher quality when assigning students to teachers. Instead, traditional classroom rostering processes often result in the assignment of students who are non-White, economically-disadvantaged, English learners, and/or highly mobile to their schools’ least effective teachers. The process repeats year after year, creating cumulative learning losses associated with inequitable access to effective instruction. We define this cycle as disproportional assignment, the systemic sorting of students for two or more consecutive school years to lower-quality instruction, as measured by teacher value-added metrics, observation scores, and/or stakeholder survey ratings. The purpose of this chapter is to (a) explore the root causes of disproportional assignment practices in K–12 schooling and (b) propose a solution for disproportional assignment that can help school leaders ensure that no student is assigned to lower-quality instruction in consecutive years.