12/28/08

Cleveland Plain Dealer Editorial

The Education Trust, an advocacy organization for poor and minority children, is right to fret about the quality of teachers in the poorest classrooms of Ohio’s largest 14 schools.

Well-regarded studies show that it takes about three years for new teachers to learn their craft. It’s easy for neophytes to flounder, especially in a school where disciplinary and academic problems are rampant and mentors scarce.

Yet according to the Education Trust, union rules that allow experienced teachers to move to affluent schools mean that positions in the poorest schools tend to be filled by novice teachers, perhaps exacerbating the achievement gap the Ohio legislature is spending millions of dollars to decrease.