tiveness as teachers become more experienced. The review takes advantage of advances in research methods and data systems that have allowed researchers to more accurately answer this question. Specifically, by including teacher fixed effects in their analyses, researchers have been able to compare a teacher with multiple years of experience to that same teacher when he or she had fewer years of experience.
The report reviews 30 studies published within the last 15 years that analyse the effect of teaching experience on student outcomes in the United States. The review concludes that:
- Teaching experience is positively associated with student achievement gains throughout a teacher’s career. Gains in teacher effectiveness associated with experience are most steep in teachers’ initial years, but continue to be significant as teachers reach the second, and often third, decades of their careers.
- As teachers gain experience, their students not only learn more, as measured by standardised tests, they are also more likely to do better on other measures of success, such as school attendance.
- Teachers’ effectiveness increases at a greater rate when they teach in a supportive and collegial working environment, and when they accumulate experience in the same grade level, subject, or district.
- More experienced teachers support greater student learning for their colleagues and the school as a whole, as well as for their own students.
Source: Does Teaching Experience Increase Teacher Effectiveness? A Review of the Research (2016), Learning Policy Institute.
Removing low-performing teachers can improve outcomes for students, according to a working paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research.
The study looked at the effect of IMPACT, a performance assessment and incentive system introduced in schools in Washington, DC. IMPACT evaluates all teachers every year based on multiple measures of effectiveness (eg, clearly described standards, several teacher observations by different observers, and student outcomes). Teachers receive one of four ratings – highly effective, effective, minimally effective, or ineffective. Those rated ineffective (or minimally effective two years running) were dismissed. Total teacher turnover rates in the schools were higher (18% per year) than in similar non-participating schools (8-17%). Turnover rates among low-performing teachers (minimally effective or ineffective) were 46%, and for high-performing teachers (effective or highly effective) 13%.
The study found that there was a small increase in student achievement in mathematics (effect size of +0.079) that was statistically significant, and a smaller increase for reading (+0.046) which was not statistically significant. Turnover of high-performing teachers had a negative but not statistically significant effect on student achievement in mathematics (-0.055). Turnover of low-performing teachers improved student performance in mathematics (+0.21) and reading (+0.14).
The authors conclude that under a robust system of performance assessment, turnover of low-performing teachers can generate meaningful gains in student outcomes, particularly for the most disadvantaged students.
Source: Teacher Turnover, Teacher Quality, and Student Achievement in DCPS (2016), The National Bureau of Economic Research.