But his program is being implemented without any real standards for teacher quality. Individuals with no training and no knowledge of the subjects they teach are eligible to become new teachers. Thus, his program is left open to the valid criticism that reducing class size alone is unlikely to boost achievement, especially if it means pairing an even greater number of poor and minority children with underqualified teachers, as it has in my home state of California. Teacher quality is one of the greatest concerns of American parents. And the evidence supports them.
Teacher quality is the most important in-school factor affecting student achievement.
And the poorest schools have an especially hard time attracting and retaining qualified teachers. In response to this concern, House Democrats introduced legislation that continued the president's class size program but also set clearer guidelines for teacher quality and held states accountable for closing student achievement gaps. It nearly passed. The Republicans passed an alternative bill, the Teacher Training Empowerment Act, which 23 Democratic colleagues and I supported. The Republicans adopted the accountability and quality standards of the Democratic proposal, but they took the added step of merging President Clinton's class size reduction initiative with other teacher training and school reform activities.