The Impact of Quality Teachers on Student Achievement

Various research studies reveal that factors, such as teachers’ cognitive ability, subject matter knowledge, knowledge of teaching and learning, licensure, and teaching behaviors in the classroom, are related to teacher quality and increased student achievement. Through a literature review these five major themes emerged that support the research that quality teachers do matter. In our nations’ schools today, teacher quality is a priority area in education policy. The Federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 requires that every state put a “highly qualified” teacher in every classroom. Title 1 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (U.S. Department of Education, Sec. 1119) defines a highly qualified teacher as a person who holds at least a Bachelor’s degree, is fully licensed to teach based on state certification, and has demonstrated competence in each academic area in which the teacher teaches(U.S. Department of Education, Sec. 1119). To meet the “highly qualified” teachers challenge, the role of teacher quality and variables that influence student learning come to the forefront in current educational goals. Theoretical Perspective Contrary to the 1966 study by James Coleman, as cited in Whitehurst (2002), that suggested that differences in teachers did not matter, recent studies have shown that teacher quality is the single most important school-related factor in student achievement. In 1996, value added assessments were conducted by Sanders and Rivers (Coleman, as cited in Archer, 1999) to answer the question of whether teachers matter. Math teachers in grades 3, 4, and 5 in two urban school districts in Tennessee were examined to determine the average amount of academic growth of students in their classrooms. From this data, teachers were identified and grouped as being the most effective teachers, the top 20%, and the least effective teachers, the bottom 20%. The progress of these students assigned to these effective and least effective teachers were documented over a consecutive three year period. The results revealed that at the end of 5 grade, math students assigned to the high performing teachers scored in the 83 percentile; students assigned to the low performing teachers scored in the 29 percentile (Whitehurst, 2002). In 1997, a similar study related to long-term teacher effectiveness was conducted in Dallas, Texas. Researchers extended the study across a wide range of grades, used three different urban school districts and two different methods of determining teacher effectiveness, and yielded similar results, emphasizing the measurable difference that better teachers have on student performance (Bembry, Jordan, Gomez, Anderson, & Mendro, 1998). In effect, these findings differ from the research of James Coleman in the 1960s that was interpreted as such, “the general message taken from Coleman’s findings is that socioeconomic status largely determines student achievement . and what schools do doesn’t matter very much, because in the end poor kids learn very little and rich kids learn a lot” (Archer, 1999, p. 3). The results of these longitudinal studies show that teachers are an influential factor of student achievement, regardless of socioeconomic status and even school location. In other words, a student having an ineffective teacher several years in a row can be at an academic disadvantage, which affects