The most disadvantaged students should have the best teachers
On average, a bad teacher lowers a 6% of a primary school studentʼs reading skills. Moreover, variations in the quality of the teacher staff have a higher impact on students from families with lower socio-economic resources than the rest and good teachers are currently over-represented in private schools. These are some of the conclusions of the study La calidad del profesorado en la adquisición de competencias de los alumnos (Teachersʼ quality on studentsʼ skills acquisition), about the effects teachersʼ quality have in the studentsʼ training. The study, published by Ramon Areces Foundation and the European Foundation Society and Education, has been carried out by professors of the Faculty of Economics and Business, and directors of the Research Program on Human Capital of the Barcelona Institute of Economics (IEB), Jorge Calero and Oriol Escardíbul, experts on the economy of education.
On average, a bad teacher lowers a 6% of a primary school studentʼs reading skills. Moreover, variations in the quality of the teacher staff have a higher impact on students from families with lower socio-economic resources than the rest and good teachers are currently over-represented in private schools. These are some of the conclusions of the study La calidad del profesorado en la adquisición de competencias de los alumnos (Teachersʼ quality on studentsʼ skills acquisition), about the effects teachersʼ quality have in the studentsʼ training. The study, published by Ramon Areces Foundation and the European Foundation Society and Education, has been carried out by professors of the Faculty of Economics and Business, and directors of the Research Program on Human Capital of the Barcelona Institute of Economics (IEB), Jorge Calero and Oriol Escardíbul, experts on the economy of education.
The study by Calero and Escardíbul analyzes which centers have the best teachers and it reaches the conclusion that good teachers are over-represented in private centers and -private and public- schools that have a higher percentage of students with a high socio-cultural and economic level. It turns out that the best teachers are more likely to teach students with more economic resources, while the worst ones usually work in centers with students that have fewer resources.
This teaching staff distribution favors families with a higher socioeconomic level. Therefore, researchers propose reversing this tendency, since “if there is no change, we will perpetuate a school with lots of inequalities and segregation” they said. According to Calero, “teachers are very important and their current distribution -at least in Spain- has a regressive effect on studentsʼ results”. To reverse this situation of inequality, Calero and Escardíbul propose to “strengthen actions that allow improving the quality of teachers in centers with more disadvantaged students and ease the presence of the best teachers in these centers”. In addition, the authors highlight the importance of continuous training related to reading comprehension as factors that strengthen teachersʼ quality”.
The study has been carried out with the basis of the results of Spanish students in the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS, 2011), an international evaluation on reading comprehension for children aged between nine and ten.