• Ben Jensen
• Grattan Institute

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28 May 2010This report presents teachers' views about the evaluation of their work, the development of their teaching and how this impacts upon school education.

Having been through school education, most of us can remember the teacher who inspired us and who was fundamental to our learning and development. And for many of us, there were also experiences with less effective teachers.

So it is not surprising that research consistently shows that quality teachers are the most significant influence on student performance. With an excellent teacher, a student can achieve in half a year what would take a full year with a less effective teacher. And the impact is cumulative: students with effective teachers for several years in a row out-perform students with poor teachers by as much as 50 percentile points over three years.

Thus improving the quality of teachers and teaching should be a central goal of education policy. Evaluating the work of teachers and developing their teaching skills is a key part of improving the quality of teaching. However, an OECD survey reveals that teacher evaluation and development in Australia is poor and amongst the worst in the developed world.