?Closing the Talent Gap,? a new report from McKinsey & Company, uses data to usefully describe ideas we already know, specifically that:
the world's top performing school systems?Singapore, Finland and South Korea . . . recruit, develop and retain [as teachers] what this report will call ?top third+? students as one of their central education strategies, and they've achieved extraordinary results. These systems recruit 100% of their teacher corps from the top third of the academic cohort, and? then screen for other important qualities as well. In the U.S., by contrast, 23% of teachers come from the top third, and just 14% in high poverty schools, which find it especially difficult to attract and retain talented teachers.
?Liam Julian, Bernard L. Schwartz Policy Fellow