How much does the quality of teaching vary at under-performing schools? Evidence from classroom observations in Chile

Abstract

The present study aimsto determine how much thequalityof teaching varies among and within under-per-formingschools.1266classroomobservationswereconductedin260schoolsacrossChile.Anindexofteachingqualitywasconstructedtoanalyzeitsvariance.Itwasfoundthatonly4.8%ofthevarianceisexplainedbytheteacher’s school. This suggests that the variance in the quality of teaching is not among schools, but withinteachersfromthesameschool.Theseresultsareimportantforpublicpolicy,especiallyinthefieldofprofes-sionaldevelopment,astheysuggestthatbestpracticescanbefoundatunder-performingschools.