| Student academic achievement in junior high mathematics is an ongoing mission for educational leaders. To achieve that undertaking, teacher effectiveness plays an important role. The purpose of this study was to examine the combined effects of teacher effectiveness on student achievement. The study was conducted in a suburban school district in southeast Houston. A total of 1,568 students in grades six, seven, and eight, enrolled in spring 2012, were selected from their mathematics classrooms to participate in the study. A nonexperimental research design was used; specifically, a hierarchical multiple regression analysis allowed the researcher to determine if a relationship existed between the dependent variable, student achievement, and the independent variable, teacher effectiveness. The results of the hierarchical regression analysis demonstrated that a combination of teacher effectiveness was significantly related to student achievement. While the relationship among teacher effectiveness and student achievement were significant, the highest regression coefficient was found in the area of teacher-student relationships. The findings reveal that the satisfaction a teacher feels regarding the teacher-student relationship has the most impact on student achievement. Given that little is known about students' relationships with their teachers in the upper elementary grades through high school (Ang, Chong, Huan, Quek, & Yeo, 2008), these findings are justification for additional research that will further explain teacher-student relationships at the junior high level, and the effect it has on student achievement. |
