President Obama and Secretary Duncan took an important step towards closing the achievement gap today by calling on states to closely examine whether great teachers are fairly distributed.
In doing so they recognized that here in New York and around the country we need policies that ensure our most vulnerable kids are being taught by the best possible teachers. Low-income students of color deserve the same opportunity to succeed as their more affluent peers and that means equal access to great teachers, regardless of zip code. Getting there starts with an honest assessment of the data.
Last year, StudentsFirstNY released Unsatisfactory, a report which detailed the inequitable distribution of teacher quality in New York City. This report strikes at the very heart of the issue President Obama and Secretary Duncan raised today.
