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Sep 15, 2005 11:04 am US/Pacific
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Report: Better Teachers In High-Income Districts
SAN FRANCISCO (Bay City News) ―
Outgoing San Francisco Unified School District Superintendent Arlene Ackerman said she supports findings in reports released Wednesday showing that schools in higher-income neighborhoods have the most experienced teachers.
The reports, compiled by the nonprofit organization Education Trust-West, examine individual school budgets in the state's 12 largest school districts. The schools with the highest number of black and Latino students, and the highest percentage of poor students, appear to have less money to spend on more experienced teachers.
Education Trust-West spokeswoman Russlyn Ali said the funding discrepancies "shortchanged" poor and minority students of experienced teachers, which she said had been proven to be the biggest help to struggling students.
Ali called school budgeting and reporting practices "deceptive," in that the standard practice now is to report a district-wide average teacher salary that does not indicate salary distribution within districts.
In San Francisco, Ackerman said that by launching the Dream Schools initiative in the Bayview Hunters Point and Mission districts, "I hope to be taking one step in the right direction towards attracting high quality, dedicated teachers... and hopefully addressing inequity and spending gaps in our district."
The reports, as well as a recording of Wednesday's telephone news conference, are available on Education Trust-West's Web site at http://www.hiddengap.org.
(Bay City News)