A study by Australian National University, examined the literacy and numeracy test results of more than 90,000 students with more than 10,000 teachers in Years 3, 5 and 7 between 2001 and 2004, tracking the same group as it advanced through the school system.
It found that classes taught by the best teachers scored twice as high as those taught by substandard teachers. The top 10 per cent of teachers were able to achieve in six months what the bottom 10 per cent of teachers took more than a year to do.
The study results are consistent with an internal study by the Dallas Independent School District. DISD found that one fifth of its faculty were so bad that students actually knew less at the end of the year that at the beginning. Furthermore, the damage done by these incompetent teachers was visible in their student’s performance years later.
The attempt to publicize the names of incompetent teachers resulted in an 8 year Open Records law suit. DISD eventually prevailed in that suit, and the names of the incompenent teachers are now to be kept secret from parents and taxpayers.
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