Summary
Improving teacher effectiveness would have a greater impact on economic growth than any other reform before Australian governments. The improvement in student learning could lift Australian students to the top of international performance tables.
An increase in teacher effectiveness of 10% would lift Australia’s education systems into the highest performing group of countries in the world. In the longer-term, this improves the productivity of Australian workers, which increases long-run economic growth by
$90 billion by 2050, making Australians 12% richer by the turn of the century. This is in addition to the other benefits to individual wellbeing and society of better education.
Improving teacher effectiveness also has substantial economic benefits for individuals. Young people who stay in school and invest in further education can expect to earn an additional 8-10% per year for each additional year of education they undertake.
Increasing teacher effectiveness is thus perhaps the single most profound economic transformation open to Australian governments. Improvements of this magnitude are achievable. Each grade needs to incorporate an extra 5% of a year’s worth of learning for our students to be amongst the best in the world.
However, education policy priorities would need to change. Past investments to improve school education have not yielded results.
Policies reducing class sizes have driven much of the increase in education expenditure in Australia over the last decades. These policies have been politically popular and are intuitively appealing. Advocates argue that a teacher should be able to offer more to fewer students.
The evidence does not support these policies. The vast majority of studies around the world have shown that class size reductions do not significantly improve schooling and student outcomes. For example, recent evidence from Florida that emphasised class size reductions in the early years of education shows that policies reducing average class size by about 2.5-3 students had no impact on improved schooling, but cost over $1 million dollars per school per year.
The evidence shows that improving teacher effectiveness is the best method of improving student performance. It is more important for a student to have an effective teacher than to be in a class with a few less students. Teacher effectiveness has a greater impact on student performance than any other government school education reform. Initiatives to improve teacher effectiveness not only help students more, they cost much less.
This report does not point the finger at teachers. On the contrary, this report argues for improved investments in teacher effectiveness. This will have the greatest benefit for our students and is the most effective method of making Australia’s school education systems the best in the world.