Teacher Quality & Student Achieveme

Teacher Quality & Student Achievement: The Proven Connection
Among education’s many stakeholders, one point of agreement remains constant. As reported in the U.S.
Department of Education’s research including the 2003 report Teacher Quality: Understanding the Effects of
Teacher Attributes shows that “high quality teachers are the most important factor in a child’s education.”
In fact, this same report notes that teachers are the single most important factor in student achievement.
Lower achieving students are most likely to benefit from improvements in teacher effectiveness. In addition,
good teachers can make a difference of one grade-level equivalent in annual achievement gains. Teacher
quality continues to rank as the most reliable predictor of student achievement.