Teacher turnover and experience factors in lower reading test score

The high numbers of less-experienced teachers at disadvantaged schools are a factor in their pupils’ lower reading and maths ability, research has found.

There is already extensive evidence that children at primary schools that get most supports through Band 1 of the Department of Education’s DEIS (Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools) scheme fare lower than all others in tests. However, the study by the Economic and Social Research Institute shows that other factors besides pupils’ social background have an influence.

The findings in the Irish Educational Studies journal are based on a study of 8,500 children at 900 primary schools, during the Government’s long-running Growing Up in Ireland project.

They show that DEIS Band 1 schools had more families from lower social classes than other types (including two groups which also get DEIS supports). However, a comparison of scores in reading and maths tests found that, as well as other aspects of children’s backgrounds, school factors also had independent effects on their results.

“Significant differences were found between urban disadvantaged and other schools in teacher experience, and teacher turnover accounts for part of the achievement gap found,” wrote Selina McCoy, Amanda Quail, and Emer Smyth.

More than half of teachers in urban DEIS schools had less than five years’ experience, compared to 38% in rural DEIS schools and 27% in non-disadvantaged schools.

“Children taught by teachers with more than 20 years’ experience achieve higher reading scores. Thus, the overrepresentation of less experienced teachers in urban disadvantaged schools accounts for part of the social mix gap in performance,” the study’s authors wrote.