Notes on Linda Darling-Hammond, Close the Achievement Gap? Close the Teaching Gap

Overview

Core claim: To close the achievement gap, close the teaching gap by improving teaching conditions, support, and feedback, not solely by increasing testing.
TALIS (OECD) findings show American teachers face tougher conditions than peers and receive less useful feedback, less effective PD, and have less time to collaborate.

U.S. teachers work harder under more challenging conditions than teachers in other industrialized nations; feedback and professional development are less useful; collaboration time is limited.
Two-thirds of U.S. teachers feel the teaching profession is not valued by society.

Student poverty in schools: 64.5\% of U.S. middle school teachers work in schools where more than 30\% of students are socioeconomically disadvantaged; TALIS global average: 19.6\%.
Class sizes: 27 students (U.S.) vs TALIS average 24.
Hours spent teaching: 26.8 hours/week (U.S.) vs TALIS average 19.3.
Total work hours: 45\,\text{hours/week} (U.S.) vs TALIS average 38\,\text{hours/week}.
Time for planning/collaboration/PD is limited due to scheduling, rooted in factory-model designs from the early 1900s.
Feedback sources: 85\% from principals vs 27\% from peers; TALIS average feedback from peers is 42\%.
Feedback quality: U.S. teachers report feedback as less useful for improving instruction than peers in other countries.

Address inequities that undermine learning: universal healthcare, early childhood education, income supports; allocate more resources to disadvantaged students.
Equalize school funding and provide wraparound services (healthcare, before/after school care, social services).
Value teaching and support professional learning: pay and invest in initial preparation and ongoing PD; recruit/retain high-quality teachers.
Redesign schools to allow collaboration: create time and restructure staffing so teachers can collaborate and learn together.
Redesign teacher evaluations: move toward meaningful, multi-source feedback (classroom data, peer and principal feedback) rather than heavy reliance on external standardized tests.

Promote collaboration-focused schools: extended time for teacher collaboration and professional learning as a norm.
Core Opportunity Resources for Equity and Excellence (CORE) Act: target resources to equity and access in learning.
Universal early care/learning programs and wraparound services to support student readiness to learn.
Align teaching careers with other high-skill professions: improved pay, professional growth, and status to attract/retain talent.
Use diverse, actionable feedback to guide instruction; reduce emphasis on value-added metrics tied to external tests.

Closing the achievement gap requires closing the teaching gap: equitable supports outside and inside the classroom, a well-supported teaching profession, and school designs that enable sustained learning for both students and teachers.