Darling-Hammond: A New "Marshall Plan" for Teaching

Calling quality teachers "the most inequitably distributed school resource," noted education rights activist Linda Darling-Hammond called on the U.S. government to implement a new "Marshall Plan"- a national commitment to train and retain high-quality teachers in every school.

In low-income areas, students remain unlikely to have teachers who have sufficient training in content areas or the necessary pedagogical training, Darling-Hammond, professor of education at Stanford University, said during a recent visit to NEA Headquarters. This problem is particularly acute in California, which underwent a large-scale hiring of unqualified teachers to help implement a statewide class-size reduction initiative in the late '90s.

"It's common practice for good teachers to not get hired in inner-city schools," explains Darling-Hammond, "Many of these districts prefer unqualified teachers or substitutes. Why? Because they cost less."

Such shortsightedness, she points out, reduces student achievement and fosters grade retention and dropouts, sending many students into what she calls the "school-to-prison" pipeline.

Key to reversing this trend, Darling-Hammond says, is a commitment to teacher retention. While California and many other states are falling short on this front, Connecticut, Kentucky North Carolina, and Vermont, among others, have succeeded in preparing, mentoring and supporting new teachers. Internationally, Darling-Hammond points to Finland and South Korea as examples of countries that make "serious investments in initial teacher education and school-level support."

As part of what she calls the new "Marshall Plan," Darling-Hammond supports the establishment of more service scholarships to prepare talented teaching recruits in high-need fields, such as mathematics, ESL, and physical science, and to teach in high-need locations. Doing so, she says, could provide classrooms across the country "with a highly qualified teacher and provide mentoring and professional development to each and every one of them"- all for less, Darling-Hammond adds, "than what we spend on the war in Iraq in one month."

-Tim Walker

For more on teacher quality, visit Issues in Education.