What%20difference%20does%20teacher%20quality%20make%20to%20social%20class%20inequalities?%20LERN/IoE/DEBRe%20Conference:%20Socio-economic%20status,%20social%20class%20and%20education;%20London,%20UK:%20May%202009

1
What difference does teacher quality make to
social class inequalities?LERN/IoE/DEBRe
ConferenceSocio-economic status, social class
and education London, UK May 2009

• Dylan Wiliam
• www.dylanwiliam.net

2
Overview science and design

• We need to improve average student achievement
• We need to narrow achievement gaps
• Both require improving teacher quality
• Improving the quality of entrants takes too long
• So we have to make the teachers we have better
• We can change teachers in a range of ways
• Some will benefit students, and some will not.
• Those that do tend to involve changes in teacher
  practice
• Changing practice requires new kinds of teacher
  learning
• And new models of professional development.

3
Looking for answers in the wrong place

• Three generations of school effectiveness
  research
• Raw results approaches
• Different schools get different results
• Conclusion Schools make a difference
• Demographic-based approaches
• Demographic factors account for most of the
  variation
• Conclusion Schools dont make a difference
• Value-added approaches
• School-level differences in value-added are
  relatively small
• Classroom-level differences in value-added are
  large
• Conclusion An effective school is a school full
  of effective classrooms

4
Within schools
Between schools
OECD PISA data from McGaw, 2008
5
(No Transcript)
6
Teachers matter

• In many countries, classroom variability is at
  least 4 times school level variability
• Its not class size or the between- or
  within-class grouping strategy
• Its the teacher
• The commodification of teachers has received
  widespread support
• From teacher unions (who understandably resist
  performance-related pay)
• From politicians (so the focus is on teacher
  supply, rather than teacher quality)
• Having a good rather than weak teacher (1sd)
  increases performance by more than one GCSE grade
• Being taught by the best teacher from a group of
  50 means that a student will learn at four times
  the rate of a student taught by the worst teacher
  in that group
• And the gains for the lowest attainers are
  greater than for average students
• So that in the classrooms of the best teachers
• Students with behavioural difficulties learn as
  much as those without
• Students from disadvantaged backgrounds do as
  well as those from advantaged backgrounds (Hamre
  Pianta, 2005)

7
more for some than others
Impact of teacher quality on student outcomes
(Hamre Pianta, 2005))
Achievement gaps Disadvantaged background (mothers education) Poor behavior
Teachers provision of instructional support High No (good) Average No (good) Low Yes (bad) High Yes (bad) Average Yes (bad) Low Yes (bad)
Teachers provision of emotional support High Yes (bad) Average Yes (bad) Low Yes (bad) High No (good) Average Yes (bad) Low Yes (bad)
8
Two ways to make teachers better

• Replace existing teachers with better ones
• Important, but very slow, and of limited impact
• Teach for America/Teach First (at most 1 of
  teaching force)
• Raising the bar for entry to teaching
• Improve the effectiveness of existing teachers
• Not because they are not good enough, but because
  they can be better
• (so good enough is not good enough)
• The love the one youre with strategy
• It can be done
• Provided we focus rigorously on the things that
  matter to students
• Even when theyre hard to do

9
Raising the bar for entry to teaching
Mean 50
Mean 55 (0.5 sd increase)
Lowest 30 removed
10
is too slow

• The correlation between teacher quality and
  student progress is around 0.2
• This means that raising teacher quality by one
  standard deviation will increase student progress
  by 0.2 standard deviations
• Raising the bar for entry into the profession so
  that we no longer recruit the lowest performing
  30 of teachers would over twenty to thirty
  years, increase average teacher quality by 0.5
  standard deviations.
• This would increase student achievement by 0.1
  standard deviations
• an increase of the speed of student learning of
  25-30, or, put another way
• an increase in the average score on a typical
  test of one point (e.g. from 50 to 51)
• A small, but valuable effect (annual value of
  8bn)

11
So our policies need to be more specific

• The dark matter of teacher quality
• Teachers make a difference
• But what makes the difference in teachers?

12
Cost/effect comparisons
Intervention Extra months of learning per year Cost/class-room/yr
Class-size reduction (by 30) 4 20k
Increase teacher content knowledge from weak to strong 2 ?
Formative assessment/ Assessment for learning 8 2k
13
The formative assessment hi-jack

• Long-cycle
• Span across units, terms
• Length four weeks to one year
• Impact Student monitoring curriculum alignment
• Medium-cycle
• Span within and between teaching units
• Length one to four weeks
• Impact Improved, student-involved, assessment
  teacher cognition about learning
• Short-cycle
• Span within and between lessons
• Length
• day-by-day 24 to 48 hours
• minute-by-minute 5 seconds to 2 hours
• Impact classroom practice student engagement

14
Unpacking formative assessment

• Key processes
• Establishing where the learners are in their
  learning
• Establishing where they are going
• Working out how to get there
• Participants
• Teachers
• Peers
• Learners

15
and one big idea

• Use evidence about learning to adapt teaching and
  learning to meet student needs

16
Aspects of formative assessment
Where the learner is going Where the learner is How to get there
Teacher Clarify and share learning intentions Engineering effective discussions, tasks and activities that elicit evidence of learning Providing feedback that moves learners forward
Peer Understand and share learning intentions Activating students as learning resources for one another Activating students as learning resources for one another
Learner Understand learning intentions Activating students as ownersof their own learning Activating students as ownersof their own learning
17
Keeping Learning on Track (KLT)

• A pilot guides a plane or boat toward its
  destination by taking constant readings and
  making careful adjustments in response to wind,
  currents, weather, etc.
• A good teacher does the same
• Plans a carefully chosen route ahead of time (in
  essence building the track)
• Takes readings along the way
• Changes course as conditions dictate

18
Looking at the wrong knowledge

• The most powerful teacher knowledge is not
  explicit
• Thats why telling teachers what to do doesnt
  work
• What we know is more than we can say
• And that is why most professional development has
  been relatively ineffective
• Improving practice involves changing habits, not
  adding knowledge
• Thats why its hard
• And the hardest bit is not getting new ideas into
  peoples heads
• Its getting the old ones out
• Thats why it takes time
• But it doesnt happen naturally
• If it did, the most experienced teachers would be
  the best, and we know thats not so (Hanushek,
  2005)
• We need to create systematic approaches to, and
  spaces for, teacher learning

19
Two competing drivers in design

• Some reforms are too loose
• e.g., the Effective schools movement
• Allows customization to the local context
• But can suffer from lethal mutations
• Some reforms are too tight
• e.g., Montessori Schools
• Undoubtedly effective
• Not possible to implement everywhere
• Fails to capitalize on affordances in the local
  context

20
Designing for scale tight but loose

• In-principle scalability requires
• A single model for the whole school
• But which honours the specifities of each subject
  and age-range
• Understanding what it means to scale (Coburn,
  2003)
• Depth
• Sustainability
• Spread
• Shift in reform ownership
• Consideration of the diversity of contexts of
  application
• Clarity about components, and the theory of action

21
The tight but loose formulation
combines an obsessive adherence to central
design principles (the tight part) with
accommodations to the needs, resources,
constraints, and particularities that occur in
any school or district (the loose part), but
only where these do not conflict with the theory
of action of the intervention.
22
So what do we need?

• What is needed from teachers
• A commitment to
• the continuous improvement of practice
• focus on those things that make a difference to
  student outcomes
• What is needed from leaders
• A commitment to
• creating expectations for the continuous
  improvement of practice
• ensuring that the the focus stays on those things
  that make a difference to student outcomes
• providing the time, space, dispensation and
  support for innovation
• supporting risk-taking
• What is needed from the system
• A signature pedagogy for teacher learning

23
Signature pedagogies
24
In Law
25
In Medicine
26
A signature pedagogy for teacher learning?

• Monthly meetings of teacher learning
  communities (TLCs) of 8-10 teachers that follow
  the same structure and sequence
• Activity 1 Introduction Housekeeping (5
  minutes)
• Activity 2 Hows It Going (35 minutes)
• Activity 3 New Learning about formative
  assessment (20 minutes)
• Activity 4 Personal Action Planning (10 minutes)
• Activity 5 Summary of Learning (5 minutes)
• Peer observations between TLC meetings
• Run to the agenda of the observed, not the
  observer

27
Summary

• Raising achievement is important
• Raising achievement requires improving teacher
  quality
• Improving teacher quality requires teacher
  professional development
• To be effective, teacher professional development
  must address
• What teachers do in the classroom
• How teachers change what they do in the classroom
• Formative assessment Teacher learning
  communities
• A point of (uniquely?) high leverage
• A Trojan Horse into wider issues of pedagogy,
  psychology, and curriculum