Teacher Inequality

Abstract

When discussing the teacher quality gap, policy makers have tended to focus on teacher certification, degrees, and experience. These indicators have become key benchmarks for progress toward equality of educational opportunity, in part for lack of additional teacher quality indicators. This article turns attention to teachers' academic skills. National data on teachers' entrance examination scores and college selectivity reveal substantial disparities by school poverty level. The findings commend attention to the gap in academic skills in the formulation of future policy and research on the teacher quality gap.