• Ben Jensen
• Grattan Institute

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Report cover: Better teacher appraisal

18 April 2011Australia is lagging in vital areas of school education. On the latest figures, student performance has stagnated in mathematics and fallen sharply in reading. Nearly a third of Year Nine students have only basic writing skills.

All studies show that more effective teachers are the key to producing higher performing students. Conservative estimates suggest that students with a highly effective teacher learn twice as much as students with a less effective teacher. Systems of teacher appraisal and feedback that are directly linked to improved student performance can increase teacher effectiveness by as much as 20 to 30%. This would not only arrest our decline but lift the performance of Australia’s students to the best in the world.

But at present Australia’s systems of teacher appraisal and feedback are broken, and students are suffering as a result. It is time for change.

No one understands this more than teachers themselves. 63% of teachers report that appraisals of their work are done purely to meet administrative requirements; 91% say the best teachers do not receive the most recognition and reward; and 71% say that poor-performing teachers in their school will not be dismissed. Instead, assessment and feedback are largely tick-a-box exercises not linked to better classroom teaching, teacher development or improved student results.