Chapter 4: Are We There Yet?: The Distribution of Highly Qualified Teachers Post-NCLB

In enacting the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, policymakers recognized that raising the quality of the teacher workforce was a necessary requirement for attaining the gains in student achievement embodied in NCLB and narrowing the achievement gap. The architects intended to improve teacher quality by establishing a definition for a “highly qualified teacher,” a standard that applies to teachers nationwide who instruct students in core academic subjects. In addition, policymakers placed new requirements on states to ensure that poor and minority children are not taught in greater proportions than other children by inexperienced or underqualified teachers. As federal policymakers consider NCLB’s reauthorization, there is considerable interest in the extent to which states and districts have been successful in improving teacher qualifications and attending to inequities in the distribution of qualified teachers. In this chapter we construct a profile of national and state progress toward NCLB’s key teacher quality provisions, including (1) ensuring all teachers are highly qualified in all subjects taught; and (2) minimizing inequitable distributions in teacher qualifications across schools.