Placing stronger teachers in weaker schools

James Sonnenberg has a request for Gregory Thornton, the new superintendent of Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS): "Give me the best you have, to work with the children who need the most." Sonnenberg is the principal of West Side Academy, an MPS K-8 school that is located in a tough neighborhood, and he is in search of a strong teaching staff to help his school. There is research that shows students benefit from having better teachers, and it is widely agreed that this is an important goal.

A recent study released by The Education Trust, a Washington-based education advocacy group, showed that students from low-income homes continue to have teachers with little experience and teachers working outside their field of expertise as compared to students from high-income homes. The report described the progress in changing this as “disappointingly slow.”

To learn more about this issue, read the full article by Alan J. Borsuk from JSOnline, the website of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.