Do School Learning Opportunities Compound or Compensate for Background Inequalities? Evidence from the Case of Assignment to Effective Teachers

Are equal educational opportunities sufficient to narrow long-standing economic and racial inequalities in achievement? In this article, I test the hypothesis that poor and minority students benefit less from effective elementary school teachers than do their nonpoor and white peers, thus exacerbating inequalities. I use administrative data from public elementary schools in North Carolina to calculate value-added measures of teachers’ success in promoting learning, and I assess benefits for different students. Results suggest that differential benefits of effective teachers uniquely exacerbate black–white inequalities but do not contribute to economic achievement gaps. Racial differences are small, on average, relative to the benefits for all groups; are not explained by differences in prior achievement; and are largest for low-achieving students. Teacher-related learning opportunities are crucial for all students, but these results point to a disconnect between typical school learning opportunities and low-achieving minority students