• Although rural SIG schools reported some challenges that nonrural SIG schools have also reported, such as low student motivation and staff morale, the rural schools reported additional challenges resulting from their schools' remote locations and large catchment areas. For example, respondents reported that these rural characteristics affected the recruitment or retention of teachers and, to a lesser extent, parents' involvement in the schools.
• School and district administrators in eight of the nine schools suggested that long teacher commutes or isolated communities posed challenges to recruiting or retaining teachers. To counter these challenges, respondents in two schools reported offering direct support for teacher commutes (for example, gas stipends or vans), and respondents in three schools reported offering signing bonuses to incoming teachers.
• School and district administrators and teaching staff in the nine schools mentioned multiple factors limiting parent involvement in school-based activities. Respondents from five schools perceived that a lack of access to transportation limited parent involvement, whereas respondents from three schools noted that the distance between schools and parents' homes was a contributing factor. Four schools focused on hiring or expanding the role of parent liaisons to increase parent involvement.

Newly emerging research is beginning to shed light on the extent to which disadvantaged students have access to effective teaching, based on value added measures. "Value added" is a teacher's contribution to students' learning gains. Because individual researchers have varied in their presentation of this evidence, it is challenging for practitioners to draw lessons from the data. This brief highlights and summarizes three recent IES studies.

The brief found that:

• Disadvantaged students received less-effective teaching on average. Based on data from 29 districts in grades 4-8 and two states in grades 4 and 5, disadvantaged students received less-effective teaching in a given year than other students in those grades. The average disparity in teaching effectiveness was equivalent to about four weeks of learning for reading and two weeks for math. For context, the overall achievement gap for disadvantaged students in grades four through eight is equivalent to about 24 months in reading and 18 months in math. Study authors estimate differences in teaching effectiveness for one year represent 4 percent of the existing gap in reading and 2 to 3 percent in math.
• Access to effective teaching varied across districts. The size of the differences in effective teaching in a given year between disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged students varied across the 29 districts studied. The disparities for each district ranged from no statistically significant difference to a difference equivalent to 13 weeks of learning in reading and math in grades 4 through 8.

• Teachers who enter teaching through alternative routes to certification can help fill teacher shortages in hard-to-staff schools and subjects without reducing student achievement.
• Coursework taken while teaching appears to decrease teachers' effectiveness.
• Predicting teacher effectiveness at the time of hiring appears to be difficult.

• A large majority of districts indicate that students may or will be reported to law enforcement for incidents involving the possession or use (86 percent of districts) or sale or distribution (87 percent of districts) of alcohol or drugs.
• Other responses include principal-determined suspensions (98 percent of districts indicate that students may or will be subject to a principal-determined suspension for possession or use; 84 percent of districts indicate that students may or will be subject to a principal-determined suspension for sale or distribution), recommendation for an expulsion hearing (90 percent for possession or use; 94 percent for sale or distribution), placement in an alternative schooling program (80 percent for possession or use; 71 percent for sale or distribution), and parent conference or notification (85 percent for possession or use; 82 percent for sale or distribution).
• Nearly one-third of districts (30 percent) report having graduated sanctions for repeat offenses. For example, 15 percent of districts explicitly allow principals to increase the duration of a suspension for possession or use if it is the student’s second offense.