Mike Enzi: “this is a teacher amendment. Teachers are the most important factor to a child's academic achievement. Student…”

“this is a teacher amendment. Teachers are the most important factor to a child's academic achievement. Student achievement will not improve unless we can ensure that all children have access to qualified teachers. Many of our schools, however, are lacking in a steady and ample supply of qualified teachers. The current state of affairs for high schools and middle schools is especially troubling. Nationally, 24 percent of all high school classes are taught by teachers lacking in either a college major or minor in their field of teaching. However, for students in high-poverty schools, this number jumps to 34 percent in comparison to 19 percent in low-poverty schools. Nearly 50 percent of math classes in high-poverty high schools are taught by teachers with neither a major nor minor in math or a math-related field, such as engineering, physics, or math education. Schools and districts for too long have been forced to depend on teacher pipelines that are not producing sufficient numbers of qualified individuals to teach in high-need areas such as math, science, foreign language, special education, and English language proficiency, and in hard-to-staff schools both in urban and rural areas.”