Brian Rowan, Richard Correnti, and Robert J. Miller, Consortium for Policy Research in Education
November 2002
A recent report from the Consortium for Policy Research in Education (CPRE) analyzes the research on teacher effects - how much impact teachers have on student achievement - and what accounts for differences in teacher effectiveness across classrooms. The authors test a series of hypotheses about the size and stability of teacher effects and about which teachers are most effective. They use data from the Prospects study, a major evaluation of the Title I program that included test scores for students in a large sample of U.S. elementary schools. The report's most important contribution is its lengthy discussion of the conceptual and methodological problems of research on teacher effects. For example, the authors caution analysts against using simple survey measures or simple descriptors - like certification level or advanced degrees - as proxies for teacher characteristics or instructional technique. The report concludes that teacher effects on student achievement may appear small unless a sophisticated statistical model is used to control for other factors, including the teaching environment, student characteristics, and a student's previous achievement level. There is evidence that teacher experience, whole-class instruction (as opposed to working with individual students), and solid coverage of the curriculum are positively related to growth in student achievement; however, any given teacher will vary in effectiveness when teaching different subjects or working with students from different socio-economic backgrounds. This report is available at http://www.cpre.org/Publications/rr51.pdf.
