EVIDENCE IN THE NEWS


Pupils’ background affects early years performance


A PUPIL’S BACKGROUND is likely to have a signifi cant impact on their attainment at school. In the British Educational Research Journal, Dimitra Hartas from the University of Warwick writes that children living in poverty, and whose mothers have no educational qualifi cations, do less well in language, literacy, and social development than their peers. She used a national longitudinal sample from the Millennium Cohort Study (MCS), which surveyed 18,553 families and 18,819 children born between September 2000 and August 2001.This study used a sample of 15,600 children from the second and third “sweeps" of the MCS, when the children reached the ages of 3 and 5. Hartas examined


the relationship between home learning and parents’ socio- economic status and their impact on young


children’s language/literacy and socio- emotional competence. The fi ndings showed that although parents across the socio- economic spectrum engaged with various learning actitivies (except reading) roughly equally, including activities directly related to school (eg, learning the alphabet, writing), this did not compensate for the socio- economic factors such as family income and the mother’s education. The difference in participation in reading was only felt to “contribute modestly to the disparities seen in their language/literacy scores”. These results suggest that there is a wide socio-economic gap in children’s literacy and social outcomes that is independent of the frequency of home-based learning.The author notes that these fi ndings have equity implications, especially as the socio-economic gap in our society widens. Source: The Hartas article is available through the Warwick Institute of Education website www2.warwick.ac.uk/ fac/soc/wie/ (see research/ publications).


What makes a good teacher?


THE SUTTON TRUST commissioned research to help develop policy proposals for improving the effectiveness of teachers in England, with a particular focus on teachers working with disadvantaged pupils. The report, from leading educational economists, used an international literature review as well as new research findings for the UK. Improving the Impact of Teachers on Pupil Achievement in the UK – Interim Findings claims that improving teachers’ effectiveness would have a huge impact on attainment.


The main findings included one study which showed that during one year with a very effective maths teacher, pupils gain 40% more in their learning than they would with a poorly performing maths teacher. However, it is very difficult to predict


how effective a teacher will be, with factors such as gender, race, teaching experience,


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undergraduate university attended, advanced degrees, teacher certification, and tenure explaining less than 8% of “teacher quality”. The report recommends a reform of performance and pay based on three core factors: improvement in results in the classroom, reviews by head teachers, and external appraisals, rather than previous qualifications or experience, or years in the job.


Meanwhile a research brief by the


US Education Writers Association, also reviewed research on the subject. They found that: Teachers are probably the most


important of the school factors in determining how students will perform on standardised tests. Value-added models appear to pick up some differences in teacher quality, but they can be affected by a number of


Better: Evidence-based Education winter 2012


factors, such as the characteristics of schools and peers. Some teachers produce stronger


achievement gains than others, but estimates of teacher effectiveness can vary from year to year. The cumulative effect of a number of strong teachers is not clear. In the US, paying teachers by results has not been shown to improve student achievement, though some international studies have shown this. Research has also been mixed on


comprehensive pay models, such as those that reward CPD. Source: The interim report is available through the Sutton Trust website www. suttontrust.com/research/improving-the- impact-of-teachers-on-pupil-achievement- in-the-uk/. What Studies Say About


Teacher Effectiveness, a research brief by The National Education Writers Association, can be found at www.ewa.org


Parliamentary event builds support for Education Media Centre


MORE THAN 70 POLICYMAKERS, journalists, educators and researchers attended a parliamentary event in November to hear more about the proposed Education Media Centre (EMC). The EMC aims to capture and spread


knowledge about what works in education, by directly supporting the national media. Speakers talked about how the EMC will provide journalists with authoritative, independent, and accessible insights from education research, and so help them base their work on robust evidence. It will link journalists with expert researchers and solid evidence in a language that they can understand, and within the timescales they need. The aim is to raise the quality of information that teachers and the general public receive through the press, and so improve practice in classrooms and outcomes for children. Leading fi gures in education and the media, such as David Puttnam, Greg Dyke, and Andrew Adonis have already agreed to be patrons. The EMC is a major project of the Coalition for Evidence- based Education, which was initiated by the Institute for Effective Education. www.cebenetwork.org


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