TQI: A Teacher Qualification Index for California's Schools

Author: Futernick, K.
Full text available online at: http://www.edfordemocracy.org/tqi/index.htm

Description

The TQI developed for this website is a standardized rating system that reflects the credential status and experience level of teachers at each public K-12 school in California. Schools receive a rating from 1 to 10 based on the percentage of qualified teachers at the school. Schools with higher percentages of underqualified teachers have lower TQI ratings. TQI ratings are reduced in schools with high percentages of beginning teachers (i.e., first and second year).

This website also provides an indication of how underqualified teachers are distributed within each school district in California. Using statistical calculations which measure distribution patterns, each school district receives a distribution rating (i.e., Very Uneven, Uneven, Even, and Very Even). For example, a district that has high percentages of qualified teachers in some of its schools and low percentages of such teachers in other schools receives a "spread" designation of "Highly Uneven."