PPA Senior Research Associate Dr. Nathan Burroughs shared his expertise in education policy at the American Educational Research Association (AERA) Conference on April 9 in Toronto.
Dr. Burroughs presented the findings of his research team’s recent study of the relationship between common measures of teacher quality and student mathematics outcomes using an international dataset of 4th and 8th grade classrooms between 2003 and 2015. This presentation was based on selected portions of his upcoming book, Teaching for Excellence and Equity.
Using a multi-model statistical approach, Dr. Burroughs and colleagues examined teacher effectiveness through both traditional measures (teacher experience and education) and less frequently employed measures like instructional time, content coverage, and teacher self-efficacy. Extending the results of United States-based research, Dr. Burroughs and colleagues found that none of these measures had a strong or consistent effect on mathematics achievement across countries. Rather than suggesting that teachers don’t matter, Dr. Burroughs argued that policymakers should exercise caution in placing too much emphasis on simple metrics of teacher effectiveness.
You can read through Dr. Burroughs’ presentation here for more information on his research. You can also read more about Dr. Burroughs here. You can contact him at nburroughs@publicpolicy.com.