Inside the Classroom: Which Teaching Skills Explain Teacher Quality?

• In Event: 54.018 - Promising Scholarship in Education: Dissertation Fellows and Their Research

Abstract

The United States spends the fourth largest amount in the world on primary and secondary education, but is ranked 23rd in reading, 25th in science, and 39th in math in international comparisons (OECD, 2012; OECD, 2016). One promising policy for increasing student learning, without incurring large increases in education spending, is by improving teacher quality. Teacher quality is typically measured as a teacher’s average contribution to their students’ learning, where student learning is measured by standardized test scores. However, high quality teachers also produce improvements in later-life outcomes, such as the increased college attendance, higher wages, and decreased teenage pregnancy (Chetty, Friedman, and Rockoff, 2014). Indeed, researchers have shown that teacher quality is one of the most, if not the most, important school-based input for increasing student learning (Rivkin, Hanushek, and Kain, 2005; Jackson, 2012). However, while high quality teachers can be identified, researchers have been unable to determine which specific teaching skills explain differences in teacher quality.

Author

• Alanna Vinsen Bjorklund-Young, Johns Hopkins University – Baltimore