Secondary School Teacher Effects on Student Achievement in Australian Schools

Abstract

This study finds that approaching 10% of the variation in high school student achievement is explained by teacher effects in Australia. It uses data from the 2011 Trends in Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) sample of Australian Year 8 students to estimate achievement in mathematics and science with student fixed effects, calculating teacher effects as part of this estimation. Like results in other studies, these teacher effects do not appear to be strongly related to observed teacher characteristics, despite attempts to account for the composition of the classes teachers face. Nor are the teacher effects related to self-assessments of how well prepared teachers view themselves as being able to teach the content of the TIMSS tests.

Keywords: Teacher Effects, Teacher Characteristics, Class Composition

JEL Classification: I21