Half-term gave ample opportunity to reflect on the importance of teacher quality in raising standards, with news on initial teacher training challenges, the employment of unqualified staff, and a major Sutton Trust literature review led by Professor Rob Coe.
The Sutton Trust review also had a stab at defining teacher quality: subject knowledge and instructional skill, combined with classroom climate and classroom management. The importance of subject knowledge is really coming back into vogue.
The report also sounded a note of caution about snap judgements of teaching quality, suggesting that school leaders triangulate judgements from observation, data and student feedback.
Teacher quality is one of the biggest dilemmas we face. It is central to standards and central to narrowing the gap, as children from disadvantaged backgrounds benefit more from a good teacher than any other group. But the trouble with teacher quality is its seeming immunity to government intervention. There really is very little that central government can do – and much that can make it worse.
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