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Teacher quality and training by James Kempton

Teacher quality is important to achieving good pupil outcomes. Summarising the

international research on student learning, the OECD concludes that there are three key

factors. First, the largest source of variation in student learning is attriutale to

differences in !hat students ring to school !hich are difficult for policy makers toinfluence " including their ailities and attitudes, and family and community ackground.

Second comes #teacher quality$, !hich is the single most important school variale

influencing student achievement. Thirdly and perhaps most contentiously, OECD cites

those teacher characteristics that are harder to measure, such as the aility to convey

ideas in clear and convincing !ays% to create effective learning environments for

different types of students% to foster productive teacher&student relationships% to e

enthusiastic and creative% and to !ork effectively !ith colleagues and parents.

The preeminence given to the impact of teacher quality is acked up y many

studies !hich compare the effectiveness of effective and poorly performing teachers,

!ith the Sutton Trust suggesting that the effects of high&quality teaching are especiallysignificant for pupils from disadvantaged ackgrounds' over a school year, these pupils

gain (.) years$ !orth of learning !ith very effective teachers, compared !ith *.) years

!ith poorly performing teachers. +n other !ords, for poor pupils the difference et!een a

good teacher and a ad teacher is a !hole year$s learning.

Supporting this, the Teacher Development Trust points to research pulished y

the e! -ealand inistry of Education !hich sho!ed that classes !here the teachers

had taken part in high&quality professional development !ere improving t!ice as fast as

those in other classes. /erhaps even more significantly given the priority the DfE gives

to narro!ing the achievement gap and reducing England$s large tail of

underachievement the 0*1 least ale pupils improved y four to si2 times faster thanother pupils.

One !ay to ensure there are high quality teachers is y training them properly.

Entry to the teaching profession has historically een quite closely regulated though

there has een criticism that entry standards have not een particularly e2acting. The

main route into teaching is through completing initial teacher training 3+TT4. 5ou can

complete +TT through a university degreecourse 36Ed4, straight after a degree

3/ostgraduate Certificate of Education4, through school&centred initial teacher training

3SC+TT4 !hich is a programme for graduates, run y and ased in schools, or through

employment&ased routes 3Schools Direct and Teach First4. There are approaching

some 7*,*** recruits to initial teacher training each year, the vast ma8ority of them goinginto university courses, though this is something the government$s reforms are no!

seeking to change. These routes lead to qualified teacher status 39TS4 !hich is

required for all teachers in maintained schools in England, though not in academies and

free schools !hich are free to employ teachers !ithout a specialist teaching qualification

if they !ish.

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+n an attempt to tighten up e2pectations, the government recently pulished a

ne! set of eight simplified Teachers$ Standards follo!ing a revie! carried out y

teachers and head teachers led y Dame Sally Coates. These ne! standards are

intended as a aseline of e2pectations for the practice of teachers from the point of

qualification on!ards. They !ere designed to e used y +TT providers to assess !hen

a trainee can e recommended for 9TS and can also e used to assess the e2tent to!hich ne!ly&qualified teachers have consolidated their training and confirmed their

competence at the end of the induction period. : second !ay to ensure high quality

teachers is through effective continuous professional development. ;o!ever in terms of 

C/D, the government$s Teaching Standards state that teachers should <take

responsiility for improving teaching through appropriate professional development,

responding to advice and feedack from colleagues=. ;o!ever, they seem to have

limited value ecause the revie! group did not attempt to prescrie in detail !hat #good$

or #outstanding$ teaching should look like, nor did they seek to specify increments in the

e2pectations for ho! teachers should e performing year on year over the course of

their career. Similarly OFSTED has little to say aout C/D in its inspection frame!orkreferring only to the need to $ensure that all teaching staff enefit from appropriate

professional development and that performance is rigorously managed$.

6eyond +TT, formal qualifications do not play any significant role in guaranteeing

teacher quality. Teaching has nothing like the system of revalidation such as the

>eneral edical Council has recently introduced for doctors0) nor any compulsory

requirement to undertake certified C/D as is the case !ith other professions such as

la!yers. Since the coalition government decided that the national qualification for

headship 3/9;4 should cease to e mandatory, the only post +TT teacher qualification

that can no! e required in mainstream schools is the masters level ational :!ard for

Special Educational eeds Co&ordinators 3SECOs4.

The asence of any requirement on teachers to certify that their practice remains

up to date, coupled !ith concerns aout the quality and value of +TT, and the fact that a

specialist teaching qualification is not even mandatory in academies and free schools,

raises ma8or questions over the role and effectiveness of current C/D provision in

ensuring the quality of teaching during the course of !hat may e a 7* year or more

career in teaching.