In a report that is likely to raise eyebrows, a federally-sponsored study has found the role teachers play in the outcome of low-income students compared to more affluent classmates is about the same.
That is, the achievement gap between children coming from high-income families and those coming from less advantaged households does not appear to be something that can be closed by improving teacher effectiveness.
“Contrary to conventional wisdom, we found only small differences in the effectiveness of teachers of high- and low-income students in our study districts,” explained Eric Isenberg, senior researcher at Mathematica Policy Research and principal investigator on the project.
“This suggests that the achievement gap arises from other factors.”
While the findings are likely to spark further testing, the import of the results should spur deeper evaluation of which factors outside the classroom most influence student performance.
Mathematica, a private nonpartisan research organization based in Princeton, NJ, undertook the teacher effectiveness study under contract with the U.S. Dept. of Education’s Institute of Education Statistics.
The findings were drawn from test scores over a five-year period ending in 2013, fourth to eighth graders in 26 districts throughout the country. The research team said the demographics closely mirror those of the nation’s school population: 63 percent of the participating students qualified for free or reduced-price meals; 29 percent were black; and 42 percent were Hispanic.
At issue is a long-standing conundrum that has persisted for generations–students from high-income families outperform those from low-income households on both annual achievement testing, as well as educational outcome.
Educators and policymakers have sought to narrow this gap by raising teacher preparation standards and implementing requirements around professional development–all based on clear evidence that effective teachers promote student success.
Two questions were posed to the research team:
- Are students from low-income households being taught more frequently by less effective teachers?
- Does a more equitable distribution of good teachers have an impact?
Using a value-added formula to measure an individual teacher’s contribution to student learning, the researchers compared the performance of low-income students with those coming from higher income households.
They found only a small difference in the effectiveness of teachers of high- and low-income students.
“The average teacher of a low-income student is just below the 50th percentile, while the average teacher of a high-income student is at the 51st percentile,” Mathematica reported.
The findings of the study also cast doubt on the notion that low-income students are more often taught by less effective teachers. High- and low-income students have similar chances of being taught by the most effective teachers and the least effective teachers.
On average, among the districts surveyed, 10 percent of both high- and low-income students were taught by one of the top 10 percent of teachers in a district, while 9 percent of high-income students and 10 percent of low-income students are taught by one of the bottom 10 percent of teachers.
The study did find, however, that hiring practices at districts in low-income neighborhoods did result in small differences in student performance. That is, districts in high-poverty areas tended to have more young teachers, who were generally less effective than their more experienced colleagues.
But the Mathematica team pointed out that the number of new hires at a high-income district amounted to about 5 percent of the teachers overall; whereas, new hires at a district in district in lower-income neighborhood accounted for just 11 percent of the teachers. They also noted that new teachers improve quickly, often in less than one year.
This article originated at The Cabinet Report.
Mr. Chorneau may be contacted at www.cabinetreport.com
