Achieving Teacher and Principal Excellence: A Guidebook for Donors

Abstract:

This Philanthropy Roundtable guidebook for donors reinforces the findings of recent research that confirms that teachers matter more to student learning than anything else. It finds that teachers and principals are insufficiently recruited, inadequately trained, inequitably distributed, and unfairly compensated. It cites studies that have found that having a high-quality teacher throughout elementary school can offset—or even eliminate—the disadvantage of a low socioeconomic background. It urges philanthropists who are serious about improving education in America, particularly among our neediest children, not to ignore the importance of improving human capital in schools