Department of Education Educator Equity InitiativeOn July 7, 2014, the U.S. Department of Education announced plans to enforce a provision of the 2001 No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act meant to ensure that every student is taught by a great teacher and attends a school run by great administrators. The provision requires states to develop and implement plans to ensure that no subgroup of students is taught at higher rates than other children by inexperienced, unqualified or out-of-field teachers. These plans are clearly necessary, as many states have never developed them and no state has updated their plan since 2006. Additionally, minority students are being taught at higher rates than other children by inexperienced, unqualified and out-of-field teachers nationwide. The Department’s next steps toward implementing these new plans will decide if they are more successful than previous efforts or not, but either way this is an important first step.