Education Law Center Complaint Alleges High Proportion of Uncertified Teachers in Philadelphia High-poverty Schools

The Philadelphia-based Education Law Center filed a complaint recently with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights. The Education Law Center is a “legal advocacy organization dedicated to ensuring that all of Pennsylvania's children have access to a quality public education.” The complaint alleges that a disproportionate number of inexperienced and uncertified teachers are assigned to teach in the highest poverty schools. Ninety percent of students in the Philadelphia School District are blacks and other minorities. In the district, slightly less than 80 percent of middle school teachers are certified, whereas, more than 98 percent of teachers are certified in white middle schools, according to the complaint.

In addition to certification problems, teacher turnover is frequently higher in high poverty schools with minority populations. In the last two years, 41 percent of the staff were newcomers in the nine highest-poverty schools, the Philadelphia Education Fund reported. In the ten schools where income levels of families were highest, there were 31 percent new teachers in the last two years. Instability and high turnover rates are associated with lower school achievement.

The Education Law Center complaint includes an analysis of why the “District’s teacher assignment practices have a disproportionate, adverse impact on students of color and poor students.” It alleges that “the teacher assignment process is governed largely by the rules of the collective bargaining agreement” with the teacher union. The current contract with the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers (AFL-CIO) will expire in August 2004. Included in the complaint is an outline of the “seniority provisions,” of the contract which allows tenured teachers to choose where they want to work.

Paul Vallas, the chief executive officer of the Philadelphia School District, acknowledged the teacher recruitment and staffing issues when he convened a group to address these and other issues in November 2002. Among the other issues identified in The Three R’s, Retention, Recruitment, and Renewal: A Blueprint for Action was a recognition that “we must stop placing the least qualified teachers in the lowest performing schools.” However, the Blueprint offered no solutions.

The Education Law Center cites cities where staffing flexibility exists and offers suggestions such as using incentives to attract certified and experienced teachers, implementing site-based selection, modifying transfer rules, targeting additional resources through compensatory strategies, and “allocating a fixed amount per child to ‘buy’ teachers within the limit of its [school] budget.”

The Office for Civil Rights will determine whether it has jurisdiction in the case, and if it does, it will investigate the complaint. An investigation may take from 30 to 60 days or longer.

Because the No Child Left Behind law requires a highly qualified teacher in every classroom by 2006, this complaint—and the reaction of the Office for Civil Rights—merits watching. The entire: Complaint to the Office for Civil Rights Concerning Teacher Distribution in the Philadelphia School District can be viewed at http://www.elc-pa.org/

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