Low-income schools lack top teachers

[Judi Lynn]

July 17, 2005, 12:36AM

Low-income schools lack top teachers
Researcher says that, most often, the best-qualified educators teach in affluent areas
By JASON SPENCER
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle

Fort Bend ISD students lucky enough to live in the upscale neighborhoods surrounding Clements or Elkins high schools have some of the most qualified teachers within the seven-county Houston area.

But their counterparts growing up in the poorer Fort Bend County communities that feed into Willowridge and George Bush high schools are left with teachers who are less experienced, uncertified in the subjects they're supposed to teach, and more likely to leave for other jobs.

The disparity in teacher quality in the Fort Bend Independent School District is typical at most of the middle and high schools throughout the seven-county Houston area, according to recent research compiled by University of Texas researcher Edward Fuller.
Fuller's findings quantify the commonly held notion that the state's best teachers work in the most affluent schools, leaving less-qualified educators to teach low-income students. And the schools with the least-qualified teachers typically struggle the most on the tests that are used to label schools as successes or failures.

"Principals hire the best they can get," said Fuller, whose research specializes in teacher hiring and retention. "The problem is sometimes the best they can get isn't very good."
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http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/front/3269333
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