Glassow, Leah Natasha;
Jerrim, John;
(2022)
Is inequitable teacher sorting on the rise? Cross-national evidence from 20 years of TIMSS.
Large-scale Assessments in Education
, 10
(1)
, Article 6. 10.1186/s40536-022-00125-9.
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Abstract
Unequal access to qualified teachers for children of different socioeconomic status—also known as inequitable teacher sorting—has been increasingly put forth as one potential factor contributing to the socioeconomic achievement gap. Despite this, few studies have investigated cross-national differences in teacher sorting, and none have examined it within-countries over time. International large-scale assessments in education are uniquely positioned to answer such questions due to their longitudinal nature at the system level. This study uses six waves of data from the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) from 1999 to 2019 for 32 education systems. We compare differences in grade 8 mathematics teacher qualifications for each country at each time point, across top and bottom groups on the student socioeconomic spectrum. Results show that on the whole many countries display negligible gaps in access to teacher quality, with some key exceptions. With respect to inequity in novice teacher sorting, the problem is most prevalent in low- and middle- income education systems (i.e. in Turkey, Morocco, Tunisia and Indonesia). Inequity in sorting based on mathematics education is less common, with no clear pattern in regards to level of economic development (i.e. in Chile, Australia, New Zealand, and Chinese Taipei). Socio-economic inequality in teacher sorting has also remained broadly stable over time. Based on experience and mathematics education, less than a handful of systems show systematic upward trends in teacher sorting inequity (i.e. in Chile, Morocco, Singapore, and New Zealand). Given the increasing focus on inequity in access to teacher competence, these results have economic and policy implications for tackling the socioeconomic achievement gap.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Is inequitable teacher sorting on the rise? Cross-national evidence from 20 years of TIMSS |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1186/s40536-022-00125-9 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1186/s40536-022-00125-9 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | © 2022 BioMed Central Ltd. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
| Keywords: | TIMSS, Teacher sorting, Educational inequity, Achievement gap |
| UCL classification: | UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education > IOE - Social Research Institute UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education UCL |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10152491 |
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