“HQT” (Highly Qualified Teacher) Status Is Not Enough to Improve Teacher Quality in High Poverty/High Minority Urban Schools

• In Event: Roundtable Session 32
  In Roundtable Session: Policy Issues Related to Teacher Effectiveness

Abstract

This paper adopts a mixed methods approach to exploring the use of qualification measures, such as the Highly Qualified Teacher designation used by NCLB, as a method of improving teaching and teacher retention in high needs urban areas. Using data from the 2007-2008 Schools and Staffing Survey and qualitative interview data, I address the question: does teacher qualification actually predict individual teaching confidence or teacher retention in high poverty/high minority schools? Using measures of teacher efficacy to estimate individual teaching confidence, I find that teachers in high needs urban schools feel underprepared for teaching, a feeling that is not mediated by qualifications. These feelings, furthermore, have a stronger relationship with retention than do measurable qualifications.

Author

• Sarah Anne Eckert, Notre Dame of Maryland University