Teachers are still the most important tool.

Having a highly qualified teacher, a key requirement of No Child Left Behind, can make a big difference in student performance on state standardized tests and in college preparation, particularly for minority and high-poverty students.

The Education Trust recently released a report, Teaching Inequality: How Poor and Minority Students are Shortchanged on Teacher Quality, that shows many low-income and minority students are more likely to have less qualified teachers, according to Kati Haycock, director of the Education Trust.

"In virtually every state and district, instead of putting kids with less with the most expert teachers we do the opposite," Haycock says. "We take the kids with less and turn around and give them teachers who have less education and less skills. And this practice does grave damage."

The report, in part, focuses on three states, Ohio, Illinois and Wisconsin. Researchers used an index of teacher quality in Illinois, basing it on factors such as how teachers performed on college-admission tests, teacher experience, and the percentage of teachers in a school who failed the state's certification exam on the first try, according to Heather Peske, senior associate for teacher quality at Education Trust. In the highest poverty high schools with high quality teachers, twice as many students met state standards as did students in other high-poverty schools but with low quality teachers. And students in Illinois who attended school with average teacher quality and only took Algebra II were more ready for college than peers who took calculus but were in schools with low quality teachers.

Rep. George Miller, highest ranking Democrat on the House Education and Workforce Committee, says the report proves the cumulative effect poor teachers have on students that need the most. He said cuts in teacher quality funds in the appropriations committee is "not helpful."

Miller adds that schools should give compensation to teachers in more difficult schools.

CHANGING the Tide

Ways districts can improve teacher quality.

* Changing the order of hiring, with the highest poverty schools hiring from the batch of new teachers first.

* Having principals who know how to collaborate and help new teachers improve.

* Banning unfair budgeting practices so the strongest and most experienced teachers are in the highest-needs schools.