In Schools, Teacher Quality Matters Most
Education Next — a non peer-reviewed journal with a mission to “steer a steady course, presenting the facts as best they can be determined…[while]…partak[ing] of no program, campaign, or ideology,” although these last claims are certainly of controversy (see, for example, here and here) — just published an article titled “In Schools, Teacher Quality Matters Most” as part of the journal’s series commemorating the 50th anniversary of James Coleman’s (and colleagues’) groundbreaking 1966 report, “Equality of Educational Opportunity.”
For background, the purpose of The Coleman Report was to assess the equal educational opportunities provided to children of different race, color, religion, and national origin. The main finding was that what we know today as students of color (although African American students were of primary focus in this study), who are (still) often denied equal educational opportunities due to a variety of factors, are largely and unequally segregated across America’s public schools, especially as segregated from their white and wealthier peers. These disparities were most notable via achievement measures, and what we know today as “the achievement gap.” Accordingly, Coleman et al. argued that equal opportunities for students in said schools mattered (and continue to matter) much more for these traditionally marginalized and segregated students than for those who were/are whiter and more economically fortunate. In addition, Coleman argued that out-of-school influences also mattered much more than in-school influences on said achievement. On this point, though, The Coleman Report was of great controversy, and (mis)interpreted as (still) supporting arguments that students’ teachers and schools do/don’t matter as much as students’ families and backgrounds do.
Hence, the Education Next article of focus in this post takes this up, 50 years later, and post the advent of value-added models (VAMs) as better measures than those to which In Schools, Teacher Quality Matters Most | VAMboozled!:
