NO FAN OF MAYOR'S PLAN: In an exclusive interview with the Chicago Sun-Times, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle broadly criticized Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s education agenda Thursday, saying the Chicago Public Schools teachers’ strike last year had provided the excuse for a sweeping school-closure plan that “weakens our public schools.”

THE LONG WALK: A Tribune analysis of a database used by CPS to calculate the average distance students affected by school closings will have to travel to their reassigned school next year shows the average walk will be almost twice as far as it is now, increasing from about a third of a mile to nearly six-tenths of a mile.

DERAILING STUDENTS: Nearly 100,000 Chicago Public Schools students would have to find a new way to get to class starting next week, once the CTA shuts down the south end of the Red Line for a major track overhaul. According to the CTA, 98,000 students at 370 CPS schools would be affected by the reconstruction of the Dan Ryan branch of the Red Line, which is set to begin on Sunday. (CBS Chicago)

TURNAROUND CONCERNS: Parents and members of the Chicago Teachers Union stormed the steps outside the Academy of Urban School Leadership’s office Thursday and raised concerns over the Chicago Public Schools’ plan to turnaround six schools at the end of the academic year. CPS wants to fire and replace staff members at Clara Barton Elementary, William W Carter Elementary, Dewey Elementary Academy of Fine Arts, and Isabelle C O'Keeffe Elementary schools on the South Side and Thomas Chalmers Specialty Elementary and Leslie Lewis Elementary schools on the West Side as part of its recent round of school actions. AUSL would take over all six schools. The Chicago Board of Education will vote on the possible turnarounds and other school actions May 22. (Progress Illinois)

PODCASTS FOR POLICYMAKERS: The University of Chicago Consortium on Chicago School Research is debuting a new podcast series, Ed. Research Matters, which will take a closer look at UChicago CCSR research, focusing on the findings that matter most for policymakers and practitioners. In the premiere episode, UChicago CCSR researcher Eliza Moeller, discusses From High School to the Future: The Challenege of Senior Year, released in February.

LEGAL ACTION: Parents of Chicago public school children filed a pair of lawsuits Wednesday claiming the city's plan to close dozens of schools violates the civil rights of students with disabilities and children who are black. (WBEZ)

In the two lawsuits filed in federal court Wednesday to try to slow down or stop school closings, the central charge is that special education students will be disproportionately hurt by the actions. (Catalyst)

The Washington Post also reports on the lawsuits.

APPLIED MATH: A CPS math teacher at Leif Ericson Elementary Scholastic Academy in Garfield Park, one of 53 grammar schools the district wants to shut down, challenges logic of closing an 'average' school. Ericson is the 242nd most underutilized school in Chicago (out of 681). And with 71.8 percent of students meeting standards, Ericson ranks in the middle third of CPS schools, 337th place out of 544 elementary schools. (WBEZ)

SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL LEARNING: Teachers across America believe that social and emotional learning is critical to student success in school, work and life, according to a new national survey released Wednesday. The survey, highlighted in “The Missing Piece,” a report by Civic Enterprises with Hart Research for CASEL: Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning, also found that teachers believe social and emotional skills can be taught, and that the development of those skills in all students should take far more priority in U.S. schools and state learning standards than they do today.

MONEY FOR ARTS ED: Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced at the City is committing $1 million toward implementing the first Arts Education Plan for the Chicago Public Schools next school year, ensuring that all students have high-quality arts instruction.

IN THE NATION
THE FUTURE OF FIELD TRIPS: Researchers and educators in a symposium at the American Educational Research Association conference in San Francisco this month suggested the next generation of field trips may use "augmented reality" to make traditional museum or zoo tours more interactive—or even create a field trip in a neighborhood or empty lot for a school that otherwise could not afford one. (Education Week)

UTILIZATION OUT, RESOURCES IN: The rhetoric around school closings is now about focusing resources, writes Curtis Black of Newstips.org. This shift in  communication strategy is dictated by the fact that school closings turn out not to be about deficits or utilization — given they won’t save money for several years, if ever, and since the “utilization crisis,” caused by adding 50,000 charter seats during a decade when CPS lost 30,000 students, is being addressed by adding more charters. CPS chief Barbara Byrd-Bennett now says closing schools will allow CPS to provide libraries, air conditioning, iPads and “learning gardens” at a small group of receiving schools.

DEPAUL DEAL: Word leaking out of City Hall indicates that a big chunk of the financing for a new DePaul arena would come from the pot of cash that robs millions from public schools, WLS is reporting.  This would be very controversial because Emanuel is on the point of closing 54 schools.

ANOTHER WAY: CPS has an alternative to school closings, turnarounds and charters, according to writer Rob Warmowski:  a school improvement approach called Focused Instruction Process that was developed by non-profit Strategic Learning Initiatives and was used successfully in six Chicago schools and is now being used in several high schools outside Chicago. Catalyst has this op-ed about the approach and its success.

TEST TOUTING: In an attempt to slowly change the academic culture of Proviso Township High School District 209, teachers, administrators – even the PTO – have been reminding students of the importance of state testing. The results seem to have paid off with significantly more participation, especially at Proviso East High School. (Forest Park Review)

IN THE NATION
THE FIRE NEXT TIME: In the Atlantic, John Tierney writes that he sees a new revolution taking shape in American K-12 public education.

CORE SUPPORT: Backers of the common core intensify their efforts to tout the standards in the face of high-profile opposition in some states. (Education Week)

A DEMAND FOR EMANUEL: The chairman of the City Council’s Black Caucus is demanding that Mayor Rahm Emanuel and his handpicked school board follow hearing officers recommendations to keep open 13 of 54 Chicago Public Schools targeted for closing. (Sun-Times)

MATH AS PROBLEM SOLVER: Researchers expect a program that combines “math tutoring on steroids” with sports-based mentoring for troubled teens in Chicago to help reduce school misconduct, absenteeism and course failures. About 50 boys at Harper High School in Englewood have taken part in the program since the school year began in fall 2012. The MacArthur Foundation has committed $1 million to expanding the combination of math tutoring and the mentoring program, which is called Becoming a Man — Sports Edition, or BAM, which is run by a Chicago nonprofit agency called Youth Guidance. A private source has pledged another $1 million and additional funding is being sought. (Sun-Times)

UNO FUNDING: As the largest charter-school operator in Illinois, the United Neighborhood Organization depends largely on City Hall and Springfield. It also borrows money — from banks and on Wall Street — to pay its bills. Private fund-raising accounts for under 2 percent of UNO’s charter-school funding. Investors, including banks and Wall Street, which together are owed about $70 million. About $37.5 million of that came through the issuance of bonds in 2011. (Sun-Times)

CHALLENGING THE TEST SYSTEM: Timothy Anderson, a student leader with Chicago Students Organizing to Save Our Schools and Voices of Youth in Chicago Education, explains why he boycotted the Prairie State test. "When the future of a school rests on its test scores, students like me get demoted or pushed out," he writes. (Catalyst)

IN THE NATION
ALL TEACHERS FIRED, SCHOOLS CLOSED: Summer break has started very early for students in one Michigan school district. Buena Vista schools have been closed for five days already, and on Monday, the district's website stated that the school would be closed until further notice. Buena Vista school district, which educates approximately 450 kids, is out of money. All the teachers have been laid off and a financial emergency has been declared. The district has suffered from declining enrollment that has led to a loss of $3 million in state funding since 2010. (Take Part)

OFF THE MAP: The Seattle School District will no longer require MAP tests at city public high schools, Superintendent José Banda announced Monday. Opponents of the test argued that it detracts from valuable classroom time, has little to do with instruction subject matter and are not taken seriously because students know they don’t affect their GPAs. (Central District News)

PRINCI-PALS: Although CPS is asking principals from closing schools and receiving schools to work together, the plans to shut schools have created friction between some principals and staffs at some schools. But two principals two Far South Side elementary schools have forged an unlikely friendship. (Tribune)

REVAMPING SEX EDUCATION: A proposal one step from Gov. Quinn's desk would require that birth control information be included by Illinois schools that choose to teach about sexual activity. Under the bill, schools that teach sex education in grades 6 through 12 would have to emphasize abstinence, but contraception and sexually transmitted disease awareness would be part of the curriculum, too. (Tribune)

CHARTER CHANCES: More than 100 suburban school board members voted against an online charter school in April that was proposed to serve students from Algonquin to Plainfield. But even with such unanimous opposition throughout the region, local educators fear the State Charter School Commission may find reason to overturn the local school boards' decisions. (Daily Herald)

IN THE NATION
TOP JOB OPENINGS: At least 17 well-known districts are facing superintendent vacancies, and the turnover may bring big changes in some school systems. Schools chiefs or interim superintendents will be leaving this year or next in at least 17 well-known districts, including Baltimore; Boston; Clark County, Nev.; Indianapolis; and Wake County, N.C. (Education Week)

WEALTH AND ACCESS: A growing number of teenagers from wealthy families in China are attending schools in New York City, seeking an advantage in admission to American universities. (The New York Times)

CHARTER SUPPORTERS RALLY: Scores of members of Charter Parents United and supporters converged on downtown Wednesday near the Chicago Public Schools headquarters making their demands known to the school district. The group wants CPS to provide “all families with the choice of a high-quality and safe public school.”  The group also lambasted the dozens of Chicago aldermen who support a moratorium on the number of charter public schools in the city. (Chicago Defender)

IN THE STATE
PENSION PROPOSAL: Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan made it clear Thursday that he will pursue a proposal to shift the cost of Downstate teacher pensions away from the state and onto local school districts. (State Journal-Register)

IN THE NATION
HYBRID SCHOOL: D.C. Schools Chancellor Kaya Henderson is seeking to merge a long-struggling elementary school with a high-performing charter school, creating what she describes as a first-of-its-kind partnership between the two types of schools. (The Washington Post)

MAKING NO PROMISES: Mayor Rahm Emanuel said Wednesday he appreciates the work done by hearing officers who want to keep open 13 of 54 Chicago Public Schools targeted for closing but made no promises to follow their recommendations. In fact, Emanuel hinted strongly that recommendations made by the retired judges — stemming from concerns about the security of some students and the special education needs of others — would not be followed by his handpicked school board.

ENCOURAGED BUT DOUBTFUL: Teachers at two Uptown schools that could close this year under a Chicago Public Schools proposal were encouraged by a retired judge's call to delay the plan — but remain doubtful CPS officials will listen or reconsider. (DNAInfo.com)

RENAISSANCE ERA: All three of the schools that launched former CPS CEO Arne Duncan’s signature Renaissance 2010 initiative are getting shaken up by the current CPS administration. And for the first time, CPS is pulling the plug on a “turnaround” school, Bethune Elementary. (WBEZ)

PENSION TENSION: The Illinois Retired Teachers Association, a group of 35,000 former public school teachers and educators, says it is prepared to sue if Senate President John Cullerton's pension reform plan becomes law. The central characteristic of Cullerton's plan is that it offers employees and retirees a set of choices, such as taking less money for their annual 3 percent automatic cost-of-living increases or keeping the level intact and giving up access to insurance. (Tribune)

COMMON CORE FOCUS: Education expert Sandra Alberti of the nonprofit Student Achievement Partners spoke at Irving School on April 29 about the new Common Core standards being implemented in Oak Park District 97 and other schools across the country. Illinois is among 45 states that are adopting the new standards, which cover elementary, middle and high schools. Common Core, as described by supporters, is described as a more rigorous way of learning and teaching English and math. (Oakpark.com)

IN THE NATION
VOUCHER RULING: Louisiana’s highest court ruled Tuesday that Gov. Bobby Jindal’s hallmark school voucher plan violates the state’s constitution because of how it is funded. The state Supreme Court found that the school voucher plan is illegal because it diverts tax dollars to private schools from Louisiana’s “minimum foundation program,” which was created under the state constitution to pay for public schools. (The Washington Post)

GOING DIGITAL: High school students will take the ACT college admissions exam by computer starting in the spring of 2015 — but at least for a while, the paper and pencil version will be available, too. (The New York Times)

Independent hearing officers are opposing 14 of the school closings proposed by Chicago Public Schools officials, citing safety concerns and the district's failure to show students would be going to better schools. In some cases, hearing officers concluded that CPS violated its own closing guidelines or presented inadequate transition plans, especially for special education students. In many of these cases, hearing officers said the academic difference between a closing school and a school taking the students was marginal.v(Chicago Tribune)

INFLATED AND FLAWED: A joint analysis by WBEZ/Chicago Public Media and Catalyst Chicago has found that CPS' original cost savings estimates related to school closings were significantly flawed—based on outdated needs assessments inflated by estimates and riddled with mistakes. And, although CPS officials lowered their initial savings estimate by $122 million, their new projections are still based primarily on speculation regarding the current condition of buildings and needs.

A SKEPTICAL PUBLIC: The amount Chicago Public Schools says it’s going to save by closing down schools is being challenged by parents, school staff and aldermen across the city. And CPS itself recently admitted to overstating how much it would save from closing schools.

A WRINKLE FOR RANGEL: Blogger Kenzo Shibata says UNO charter network's CEO Juan Rangel should step down from the Public Building Commission that oversees construction of public schools and other government buildings. "It’s been well documented recently that UNO Charter Schools operated largely as a patronage trough for the connected. This news prompted Illinois Governor Pat Quinn to suspend state funding to the UNO charter network coming out of a $98 million state grant." (Chicago Now)

IN THE NATION

EVALUATIONS AND TEST SCORES: While Texas legislators and educators agree that better methods are needed for teacher assessment, the question of tying evaluations to test scores is a sticking point. (The New York Times)

DUNCAN ON DETROIT: U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan visited Detroit students Monday and told them better days are ahead for the city's troubled schools. (The Detroit News)

An Atlantic article asks whether new CPS evaluations are proving a valuable tool or simply another drain on educators' time by focusing on the experiences of teachers and principals at three schools (John Hancock and Jenner and Robert Emmet Elementary), where the new teacher evaluation program was implemented this year. (The Atlantic)

IN SUPPORT OF TEACHERS: On Friday morning, hundreds of Lincoln Park High School students poured out onto the street, in a walkout in support of their teachers. Eight teachers recently learned they will not returning when the school is converted to a wall-to-wall International Baccalaureate. Before doing so, they presented a letter explaining why they planned to walk out. “We want to show that we do care about our education and we wish to have a say in it,” it read. “We have been informed that many teachers are being fired so that newer teachers can be hired and we don’t want to sit back and let CPS make a business of our education.” (WBEZ)

IN THE NATION

A NEW MAJORITY: Hispanics have passed whites as the largest ethnic group in Texas schools, making up almost 51 percent of public school enrollment. The influx of Hispanic students, many from poor families, has brought about many changes in classrooms, with more expected as that population continues to grow. (Dallas Morning News)

NOVEL CO-HABITATION: Two redbrick buildings in a gritty section of Philadelphia are being converted into apartments and offices intended to house teachers and nonprofit educational organizations in what the developers hope will become a cohesive community. When the renovation is complete, 60 percent of the buildings’ 114 apartments will be reserved for teachers, who will be offered a 25 percent discount on market rent — paying about $1,000 a month for a one-bedroom unit in a neighborhood where they typically rent for $1,300. (The New York Times)

DEFICIT SPENDING CONCERNS: Chicago Public Schools released a proposed $162 million capital budget for its 2014 fiscal year Wednesday that officials said will focus only on the "most urgent needs and educational facilities," in light of a projected $1 billion budget deficit, but Laurence Msall, president of the Civic Federation, expressed concern about the district spending money and issuing more bonds without a clear plan on how to solve its massive budget deficit. (Tribune)

CHARTER TEACHERS UNIONIZE: Teachers at one of Chicago’s largest charter-school networks — run by the United Neighborhood Organization — have voted to organize into a union. More than 400 teachers and staff at UNO’s 13 schools decided to join the Chicago Alliance of Charter School Teachers and Staff, known as Chicago ACTS, more than doubling its membership in a move national labor leaders hailed as key to their efforts to unionize charter schools. (Sun-Times)

IN THE NATION
PUBLIC-PRIVATE EXPERIMENT: Educators and policy observers are keeping a close eye on two controversial experiments in private management of public schools now unfolding in this western Michigan city and in the Detroit-area community of Highland Park. Citing chronic budget woes in the communities’ low-performing school districts, Gov. Rick Snyder of Michigan last year declared a state of financial emergency and appointed an emergency manager for each district. The managers, in turn, hired two separate companies—Mosaica Education and the Leona Group—to run the schools. (Education Week)

ENROLLMENT-BASED BUDGET CUTS: D.C. schools chancellor Kaya Henderson and Mayor Vincent C. Gray say school-level cuts are necessary because of the system’s failure to meet enrollment projections. The system received per-pupil funding this year for a projected enrollment of about 47,000 students, but only 45,500 showed up for class. (The Washington Post)

DANGER ZONES: Nearly half of the 1,054 youths murdered in Chicago during the past five years were killed within census tracts where schools are closing, according to The Chicago Reporter. But CPS says it's preparing safety plans to address potential problems related to gang turfs and street violence. Its Safe Passage program, which stations adults along routes that students take to school to oversee their safety, has been budgeted a nearly $8 million increase in funding next year and will be implemented at all of the receiving schools.

CHARTER GREEN LIGHT: A charter group's bid to open a school in McKinley Park cleared a big hurdle Tuesday, when the city's zoning board approved a switch to convert a vacant factory into one of the city's newest charter schools. "Everything is ready to go," said Salim Ucan, vice president for Des Plaines-based Concept Charter Schools, which operates 27 schools across the Midwest, including the Chicago Math and Science Academy in Rogers Park. (DNAInfo.com)

FROZEN MEALS: Dozens of Chicago Public Schools food service workers rallied Tuesday afternoon to call for an end to quickly prepared frozen meals that can be readied in smaller kitchens by fewer workers. According to Unite Here Local 1, which organized the rally, 25 percent of CPS schools serve prepackaged meals that arrive at the schools frozen. In a statement, the district said sites that serve frozen meals often "don't have full kitchens or their space doesn't meet code standards to prepare food." (Tribune)

CHARTER BARTER: Several area school district superintendents are asking parents and others to support legislation that would impose a one-year moratorium on the creation of new virtual charter schools.
The move follows the recent rejection by 18 suburban school districts of a proposed online charter school for children in kindergarten through high school. (Tribune)

GAME'S ON—AGAIN: The baseball game between Walter Payton College Preparatory High School and Gwendolyn Brooks College Preparatory Academy was rescheduled again, this time for May 11. Last weekend, Payton's baseball team forfeited the originally scheduled game. Payton's coach William Wittleder told several news outlets that parents didn't want their sons to travel to Brooks' home field in the Roseland neighborhood on the city's Far South Side. (Tribune)

IN THE NATION
RHEE FINANCED: The Walton Family Foundation, a supporter of school choice and parent-empowerment causes, announced today that it would invest $8 million in StudentsFirst, a school improvement advocacy organization led by former District of Columbia Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee. The foundation's $8 million in funding, which will be doled out over the next two years, is an increase from the $3 million the foundation has given StudentsFirst since 2010. (Education Weekly)

The initial complaint against UNO was filed by PURE and members of the Pilsen Academy local school council and parent community on Jan. 17, 2013. "That complaint called on the EIG to investigate how the politically connected organization has been able to amass $98 million in legislative earmarks and nearly $70 million in tax-exempt bonds without proper oversight of what seems like a complicated financial shell game," the news release said.

GOLDEN APPLE WINNER: TEAM Englewood Community Academy freshman English teacher Katherine Dube was the first of 10 2013 recipients of the Golden Apple Award for Excellence in Teaching to be announced this year. Gov. Pat Quinn, a media swarm, Dube’s family and a host of other well-wishers poured into Dube’s classroom Monday morning to make the surprise announcement. She was nominated by her principal. Each award winner receives a tuition-free, spring quarter sabbatical to study at Northwestern University as well as $3,000 in cash. (Sun-Times)

IN THE NATION
SHORT TIMERS: About half of the first-year teachers that Florida's Duval County Public Schools recruits are gone within five years, according to a study released Monday by the Jacksonville Public Education Fund. A combination of low pay, too much paperwork and a lack of voice in district and state education decision-making are the main reasons for the turnover, the study shows. (Florida Times-Union)

CORE CRITICISM: As public schools across the country transition to the new Common Core standards, which bring wholesale change to the way math and reading are taught in 45 states and the District of Columbia, criticism of the approach is emerging from groups as divergent as the Tea Party and the teachers union. (The Washington Post)

PRESCHOOL FINANCING FALLS: Spending on state-funded preschool dropped by more than half a billion dollars in the 2011-12 school year compared to the year before, creating a hole that some states are only now attempting to fill, according to a report out today from the State of Preschool 2012 produced by the National Institute for Early Education Research, based at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, N.J (Education Week)

O'Connor, a former longtime head of the City Council's Education Committee, said his sister is a contract employee without benefits and she is qualified for the job. Sugrue worked at CPS for 17 years before she became an education consultant.

CLOSURE CZAR: Catherine Sugrue holds the newly created title of CPS director of school transition, reporting to Tom Tyrell, the retired Marine charged with safeguarding 30,000 displaced students.

BASEBALL DUSTUP: A North Side Chicago Public Schools principal says internal leadership problems, not "racist tendencies," led to his baseball team forfeiting a game Saturday on the city's Far South Side. The explanation came after a series of media reports, which the principal says are largely inaccurate, said that parents feared for their athletes' safety on the South Side. (Tribune)

GAME OVER: Brooks College Prep’s baseball coach said Sunday he doesn’t want to play Payton College Prep ever again after a group of Payton parents refused to send their kids to the Far South Side school for a night non-conference game, citing safety concerns. (Sun-Times)

TEST CANCELLED: Chicago Public Schools cancelled a district-mandated standardized test last Thursday amid growing concern about overtesting in the system. CPS CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett sent a letter to parents Thursday informing them that kindergarten and first grade students would not be taking the Northwest Evaluation Association test next week. Second-grade students will take a different version of the same test next week so that third-grade teachers can understand where they stand academically at the start of next year. (WBEZ)

IN THE NATION
UNHERALDED IMPROVEMENTS: In an Op-ed, the chancellor of D.C. Public Schools Kaya Henderson touts the improvements the district has been making under her stewardship that have generated little fanfare. "People must think that if we are not angering the community, clashing with unions, creating discord in our schools and making headlines, we must not be making change," Henderson writes. (The Washington Post)

COLLEGE LOAN CHANGE: The Obama administration has found itself at odds with a key voting block—college students and their advocates—as well as many of its Democratic allies in Congress, because of an important, if technical, budget proposal that could have significant implications for college access. In a move intended to stave off a doubling of interest rates on federally backed Stafford Loans over the summer, the administration is seeking to shift those interest rates from the current predictable, fixed-rate system to a market-based rate at the time of the loan. Right now, interest rates on subsidized Stafford Loans are set at 3.4 percent, but they're slated to jump to 6.8 percent in July, unless Congress and the administration act. (Education Week)

TESTING SCRUTINY: Amid an escalating battle over standardized testing that included a “play-in” protest at CPS headquarters last week and a student boycott of the Prairie State Achievement Exam on Wednesday, CPS officials are undertaking a broad review of testing in the district. (Catalyst)

DUNCAN'S SECRET LOG: WBEZ has obtained a redacted copy of the "secret log" that former CPS chief Arne Duncan kept to manage requests by public officials and other connected Chicagoans seeking to get their children into the city’s elite grammar and high schools, many of which admit students only by test score or lottery. Recent figures show that at some of the schools there are 20, 30, or even 50 times more applications than available seats.

EXEMPTING THE YOUNGEST: Chicago Public Schools says it's taking a closer look at testing, for now removing assessment tests for kindergartners and first-graders this school year. (Tribune)

INTEREST WANES: The final round of public meetings over Chicago's decision to shut down scores of schools has often been sparsely attended and overcast by an air of futility. Community leaders say some people are simply burned out, while others feel their efforts are pointless after Mayor Rahm Emanuel's administration decided to shut down 54 schools after months of protest and public engagement.  (Tribune)

IN THE NATION
SCHOOL SAFETY LEGISLATION: Education Week has compiled an interactive analysis of nearly 400 bills related to school safety filed in the days, weeks, and months after the Newtown, Conn., shootings, finding that legislators have proposed solutions that include arming teachers, adding guards or police officers, and shoring up the security of school buildings.

UNEQUAL TEACHER QUALITY: Less-experienced teachers and teachers with degrees from less-competitive colleges are often assigned to teach lower-achieving students in Miami-Dade County Public Schools, according to a new report, "Systematic Sorting: Teacher Characteristics and Class Assignments" by Stanford University. Past research has shown that students’ academic achievement depends on the quality of their teachers, however not all students have equal access to teachers with experience. This then leads to an achievement gap largely affecting students of color nationwide. (BET)