- Teachers in high-minority schools have weaker qualifications on average than those in schools serving white students
- Black-white differences in teacher qualifications have been growing over time as minority students have become more concentrated in high-minority schools
- Financial incentives, changes in timing of hiring, and improving working conditions, professional development linked to relevant standards, and alternative pathways for teacher to enter the profession are potential ways of reducing gap in teach quality between high- and low-minority schools; more research is needed
- Research suggests that smaller class sizes can generate higher achievement and that effects are larger for minority students, however increased numbers of teachers is costly and may have unintended consequences such as reducing overall teacher quality
- Whole school reform has been implemented with mixed results depending upon specific models used; some have potential to raise student achievement of low-performing students, however widespread implementation is difficult with no guarantee of widespread success
- Evidence suggests that school-based accountability programs result in small effects; little evidence that they reduce achievement gaps at higher grades
- With regards to reducing black-white achievement gaps, school choice programs show at best mixed results; however, these programs may achieve other goals not related to closing achievement gaps