Attentive teachers can positively impact students' performance

Washington: A recent report published by 'IZA World of Labor,' discovered that the effectiveness of a teacher has a strong impact on pupil's attainment. The study finds ways to increase the effectiveness of teacher by reforming hiring practices and finding new methods on teacher training and development.

In the education process, the effectiveness of the teacher is the most important component for pupil attainment. Economist Simon Burgess of the University of Bristol, suggests that, in the US, replacing the least effective 8 per cent of teachers with average teachers has a present value of $100 trillion. Having a good understanding of how teacher's effectiveness can be measured, the study carried by IZA World of Labour stresses on the importance of politicians to find ways to raise the efficiency of teachers.

A collective study cited by Burgess from different countries by assigning an experimental assignment to teachers during classes showed that variations in teacher effectiveness are extremely important in understanding pupil's attainment. In fact, there is no such attribute of schools that comes close to having this much influence on students achievement. Out of many studies, one study estimates that replacing the 5 per cent least effective teachers with average teachers would yield around $9000 per classroom per year in future pupil earnings due to better education.

Higher the effectiveness in teacher, higher the earnings of the pupil and are the ones more likely to go to better university and to live in richer neighbourhoods.

Given the fact that more studies need to be done to analyse the area more, Burgess points out three areas in particular that seem to hold the greatest promise when it comes to improving teacher's effectiveness.

1) Improving teacher selection and hiring procedures (by for example replacing ineffective teachers at an early point in their career

2) Reforming teacher contracts and the tenure/retention decision (currently highly effective teachers are more likely to leave their job)

3) Re-thinking teacher professional development (through for example personalized teacher coaching).

Giving a conclusion, Burgess states that "Teacher effectiveness should be a central concern for education policymakers...The potential size of the impact of improving teacher effectiveness represents a truly grand prize for the countries, cities, and schools which manage to crack the code of how to raise teacher effectiveness."