Understanding and Improving Teacher Quality

The project is designed to measure the impact that teacher quality has on student performance, and to empirically analyse the factors that affect teacher quality. It has three objectives. First, to separate students literacy and numeracy test score results into inherent student characteristics, teacher quality, and school quality. Second, to analyse how much experience and qualifications affect teacher quality. And third, to explore how teacher quality has changed over the past 15 years, and whether pay affects the ability distribution of those who choose to become teachers. Better understanding what affects teacher quality is essential to improving Australia's education system.