Effect of teacher engagement and teacher effectiveness on student achievement

No Child Left Behind legislation has required American public schools to validate through test scores that students are provided with a comprehensive and globally competitive education. The research available to adequately surmise the effects of teacher engagement and effectiveness on student achievement gains for grades 4-8 is limited. The theoretical base of the study was that student gains were affected by both the breadth of engagement and the extent of characteristics that are naturally inherent in effective teachers. Student vertical achievement data from the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills test were collected from 6,838 participants. Teacher engagement mean scores, from the Gallup Q12 survey, and teacher effectiveness scores, as measured by the TeacherInsight (TI) interview, were used to group 309 teachers in grades 4-8 on 28 campuses from one school district. An analysis of variance was utilized to test the hypotheses relating teacher engagement and effectiveness to student mathematics and reading gain scores. For mathematics, the difference between the means for the Low engagement and High engagement groups were statistically significant however, the effect size eta 2 indicates that group membership can account for only about 3% of the variance in gain scores. For reading, the difference between group means was not significant. The difference between the means for the Low TI and High TI groups was not significant for mathematics or reading. Social change is affected by redirecting educators' attention to the instructional environment and teacher selection processes. The social implications of an engaging culture and diligent selection of effective teachers include providing a path to sustainable student gains in mathematics and reading.