ABSTRACT
Chapter 5 demonstrated how hard it is to find good evidence of the differential effectiveness of entire schools or school types. This chapter looks at the evidence for the differential effectiveness of teachers in terms of student outcomes. As may be imagined it is just about impossible to demonstrate that one teacher is more or less effective than any other using the techniques from Chapter 5. This is not necessarily because teachers are not differentially effective, but because the calculations involved are not possible with current methods. Of course, this is not to suggest that teachers in general do not make a difference — only that they are not obviously differentially effective. The evidence from student reports is that there is considerable variation in the skills, even the very basic skills, of teachers. This may be partly the result of variability in the process of admitting and qualifying trainee teachers. This chapter looks at each of these issues in turn, before considering the implications for overcoming disadvantage. The next chapter looks at the more important impact of teachers on the wider outcomes of schooling.
