Schools Matter: How Much Teachers Affect Student Achievement, and Other Myths

Schools Matter: How Much Teachers Affect Student Achievement, and Other Myths:

How Much Teachers Affect Student Achievement, and Other Myths

by Jim Horn

Thanks, largely, to the irresponsible and sloppy messaging by some statisticians and psychometricians who know better, there is an ugly meme circulating that teachers are the most influential factor influencing student achievement, and so, if we can just get rid of the bad teachers and replace them with non-teachers with no experience and no benefits (this is where the logic really breaks down), then we will have the achievement gap on the way to closing up.  

Below are a couple of reminders from the research about what the realities are, despite the obfuscating rhetoric from both sides of the aisle of the corporate policy jet.

The first is an analysis of latest international test results from PISA.  It is offered by Mel Riddile from the  National Association of Secondary School Principals at their research blog, The Principal Difference.