Production of Academic Achievement as a Function of Teachers' Training, Experience and Salaries.

In an attempt to link public school expenditures to educational outputs, achievement test results of 6,605 elementary students in St. Louis, Missouri, were analyzed to see whether training and experience of teachers has an impact on student outcomes. The researchers matched individual students with teachers for five-year periods during grades three through eight. Variables examined include students' testscores and race, school enrollment and attendance, pupil-teacher ratios, percentage of non-white students and teachers, ratings of teachers' baccalaureate and graduate institutions, and eight factors relating to achievement levels of students' classmates. The study found that previous achievment levels and student intelligence are excellent predictors of achievement; that teacher experience is occasionally a factor in student achievement; and that the effect of teacher and school variables is larger for black students than for white students. The study concludes that school level variables explain virtually none of the variation in student achievement and that it is unlikely that such factors as administrator intensity, teacher and pupil attendance rates, and resource allocation will have much impact on student achievement. (JEH)