The Effect of Teacher Experience on Student Test and Non-Test Outcomes: Implications for Educational Policy

This study examined the relationship between teacher experience and multiple student outcomes in grades 4 to 6 elementary schools in a large mid-high poverty district. Outcomes considered included standardized state assessments of English language arts and mathematics, social-emotional learning, disciplinary incident count, and disciplinary incident severity. Using multilevel modeling, which adjusted for an extensive set of student and classroom composition covariates, no significant relationship was found between years of teaching and any of the student outcomes. At the student level, state test scores were associated with the student’s prior year test score, giftedness, home language, and English learner status; social-emotional and disciplinary outcomes were associated with race/ethnicity, gender, and special education status. At the classroom composition level, the mean level of the students in the classroom prior year score on the outcome variable was the key predictor of student outcomes. These findings highlight that student factors and classroom composition factors are more predictive of both academic and non-academic student outcomes than teacher experience.