Formal Education and Quality

09/21/2007

You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face.
Eleanor Roosevelt

A study, “Teachers’ Education, Classroom Quality, and Young Children’s Academic Skills,” reported in Child Development (March/April 2007) found no evidence of a significant link between teachers’ formal education and classroom quality and academic outcomes for 4-year-olds. The researchers' conclusions were based on an analysis of seven recent studies on how teachers’ education affects 4-year-olds’ learning and classroom quality.

The authors of the report suggested three possible reasons for the lack of association between teachers’ education and quality:

Preparation and education for preschool teachers may not be adequate.
Teachers may not be receiving enough support to be effective.
Higher wages may be attracting the highest quality teachers with Bachelor’s degrees into classrooms with older children. Also, school systems may be placing high-quality teachers in higher grades where accountability testing is more likely to occur.

Establish a Quality Environment

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Johnson & Wales University, School of Education

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