Teacher Performance-Based Accountability: Why, What and How

Recent research has identified teacher quality as the most important variable in increasing student achievement. The effect of the teacher on student achievement has been shown to be greater than effects due to class size, school, and student socioeconomic status (Sanders & Horn, 1998). Yet proxies implemented by states and districts to determine teacher quality have been woefully inadequate. Teacher entrance and exit examination scores, years of experience, advanced degrees, and teaching credentials are either not related to student achievement and ratings of teacher performance by administrators or researchers, or the relationship is small. This article reviews the research on teacher quality. The author then proposes that by implementing rigorous teacher performance-based accountability systems, teacher quality can be defined, leading to targeted professional development to improve teachers' teaching practices and student achievement. It is funny to think that the education community and the public needed research to demonstrate that the quality of a teacher is the most important variable when it comes to student learning and achievement (Education Trust, 1998). But William Sanders's research provided evidence for the obvious. Sanders found that students with comparable achievement levels in second grade had drastically different outcomes in fifth grade. The results were not primarily due to socioeconomic status, class size, or even the school the student attended , but to the sequence of teachers the student had (Sanders & Horn, 1998). Unfortunately, Sanders's work and other supporting research that demonstrates quality teachers matter does not inform principals or districts how to develop and produce quality teachers. Sanders's research provides no insight about what personal attributes, knowledge, skills, characteristics , or teaching methods and behaviors distinguish high quality educators from mediocre ones. Yes, teacher quality matters, but what quality looks like and how quality is developed remains unclear. So unclear that a recent review from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development claims "rigorous experimental and qualitative research that defines and characterizes effective teaching methodologies that demonstrate improved student performance is limited. This persistent gap in the extant knowledge base must be addressed (p.20, National Reading Panel, 2000)." For the past 35 years researchers – mostly economists – have been studying teacher characteristics and attributes (inputs) that relate to student achievement instead of studying and characterizing effective teaching. This line of research has been ineffective in finding any conclusive results. What is rarely looked at is how the teacher actually performs …