Teacher Quality and Student Achievement (continued)

6.  How important are teachers’ years of teaching experience?

Researchers agree that teaching experience is positively correlated with higher student achievement even though findings about its meaning vary. For example, some studies find that years of teaching experience are a consistent predictor of higher test scores. Others document a negative effect when a high proportion of inexperienced teachers are present in a school in terms of higher dropout rates and lower student achievement scores.

Nevertheless, some research studies suggest that the effect of teacher experience is small relative to the effects of the other three desirable teacher characteristics: teachers’ content knowledge, credentials, and overall academic ability.

7.  How important are teachers’ professional certification and training?

Many studies demonstrate that students with certified teachers perform better than students with teachers who have no certification or emergency certification. Similarly, studies show that teachers who have professional education training, or “pedagogy,” produce higher student achievement than those who enter the profession and lack this background.

One study finds that the effects of teacher certification are even greater than those of teacher experience. However, other researchers urge caution about making generalizations regarding the effect of certification because not all studies support these findings and certification requirements vary considerably by state.

8.  How important is teachers’ academic ability?

Research indicates that teachers with greater academic ability tend to have students who perform better. The findings hold up regardless of which indicator researchers use to represent teachers’ academic skills: SAT or ACT scores, grade point average, or selectivity of college attended. However, because of the different measures, it is difficult to generalize about the magnitude of the effect on student performance.

9.  What steps are being taken to ensure that there are qualified teachers in every classroom?

The federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) requires a highly qualified teacher in every classroom by the end of the 2005-2006 school year. To be highly qualified, teachers must meet state certification requirements. New teachers must major in the content area they will teach or pass a test on the content. Teachers who are currently in the classroom and who have not met the standards for highly qualified must meet the standards set by their state’s High Objective Uniform State Standard of Evaluation (HOUSSE) system, which awards points for experience, professional accomplishments, and completion of graduate courses and other kinds of professional development.

States must produce report cards on the percentage of highly qualified teachers at the state, district, and school levels. They must also show how teacher quality is distributed between high- and low-poverty schools.

NCLB also has “right to know” provisions for parents of students in Title I schools—schools with a high population of low-income students. These parents have the right to know the qualifications of their child’s teachers, including whether they have temporary or emergency licenses or are certified in the subject area they are teaching. Title I schools must also notify parents if their child is being taught for more than four weeks by a teacher who is not fully certified.

10.  What can school districts do to support efforts to have a highly qualified teacher in every classroom?

Recruitment: Districts can step up their recruiting efforts to aggressively seek teacher candidates who have strong academic credentials and who have completed a rigorous teacher preparation program. District recruiters could, for example, closely examine transcripts and other records that identify and describe the actual courses that teacher candidates have taken in order to asses the rigor and extent of teacher preparation. They could also ask teacher candidates specific questions about their course requirements and assessments during interviews.

Data collection:
States and districts can explore value-added methods for monitoring teacher effectiveness, such as those used in Texas, North Carolina, and other states. They can use this data to inform decisions about where to assign teachers, how to staff schools, and what supports and professional development are needed to maximize the benefits of having good teachers. Teachers can use value-added data themselves to reflect on their own practices and to assess students’ individual needs.

Teacher preparation:
Information about effectiveness can help districts identify teacher education programs that produce better qualified teacher candidates. It can further prompt discussions between state universities and districts regarding ways to ensure that teacher preparation programs explicitly address state and local instructional needs, including helping to increase the supply of teachers in areas of shortage.

Professional development and supports:
Districts can establish and maintain intensive, long-term induction programs that focus on helping new teachers and teachers new to the district meet challenging professional performance standards. Districts can also plan and implement comprehensive, standards-based professional development programs for all teachers that provide continuous access to professional learning activities specifically tailored to teacher needs and district priorities.