Cross-national study of teacher quality, its distribution and effects upon mathematics achievement

Policymakers have been concerned with improving student achievement. Some have advocated that teacher quality is the means to increase student achievement, since teachers are critical in the learning process. Yet, there is no agreed upon definition of what constitutes teacher quality, the characteristics associated with it, and its effects upon student achievement.;This dissertation examined teacher quality cross-nationally to determine its level, variance, association with classroom parental education, and effect upon classroom mathematics achievement. Characteristics of experience, teaching preparation, and mathematics preparation were used to define teacher quality with TIMSS 2003 data. Factor analysis was employed to develop a consistent composite of teacher quality across countries. Countries with mean composite scores above the average for the sample were: Australia, New Zealand, Palestine, Romania, and the United States. The majority of teachers in these countries were high quality by this measure and had more uniformity in their sample.;The composite score was significantly related to classroom parental education in Chile, Ghana, Philippines, Slovakia, and the United States, implying an inequitable allocation of teacher quality. No statistically significant relationship between the composite and classroom parental education was found in the remaining countries, implying an equitable allocation of teacher quality in relation to classroom parental education.;The effect of the teacher quality composite upon classroom mathematics achievement was modest, accounting for 3% to 13% of the explained variance in Botswana, Chile, Jordan, Palestine, Romania, Sweden, and the United States, but was not statistically significant in the other countries. However, classroom parental education exerted positive and significant effects upon classroom mathematics achievement in all countries. Classroom parental education did not interact with the teacher quality composite in any country except in Botswana. Thus, the effect of teacher quality was not statistically significantly different for classrooms with high and low levels of parental education, except in Botswana.;Policy implications of this dissertation are related to the need to generate better data and refined methodology to improve the measurement of teacher quality to accurately assess its effects upon mathematics achievement. Suggestions are provided for survey development in future large-scale data collection efforts.