Teacher Characteristics Not Related to Test Scores

Michael L. Walden

July 15, 2002

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Educators everywhere are searching for ways to improve student test scores. But based on an analysis of recent Wake County elementary school data, the “silver bullet” for better test scores is not to be found in teacher characteristics.

Recently released “report card” data for each Wake County elementary school allows an analysis of composite test scores for the schools and four teacher characteristics – the teacher turnover rate, the percentage of fully licensed teachers, the percentage of teachers with advanced degrees, and the number of National Board certified teachers. Also available is the percentage of students in each school receiving free or reduced lunch. This latter measure can be viewed as a proxy for the economic status of the students’ parents.

A statistical procedure (multiple regression) was used to look at the simultaneous influence of the teacher characteristics and the percentage of students with free or reduced lunch on the composite test score. The results were unambiguous. None of the teacher characteristics was statistically related to the composite test score. That is, increases in the rate of fully licensed teachers, in the rate of teachers with advanced degrees, and in the number of National Board certified teachers, and decreases in the teacher turnover rate, were not related to higher test scores.

However, the percentage of students receiving free or reduced lunch was strongly related to the composite test score. Specifically, each one-point increase in the percentage of students with free or reduced lunch was related to a one-third point drop in the composite test score.

Of course, these results are based on the latest data for only one school system (Wake County), so they should be viewed from this perspective. But the results do question the assumption that teacher characteristics are the issue in student test scores. Instead, these results strongly suggest student characteristics are the main issue in student test scores.

Walden is a William Neal Reynolds Distinguished Professor in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics at North Carolina State University and an adjunct scholar with the Locke Foundation.

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