Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/216617 
Year of Publication: 
2020
Series/Report no.: 
CESifo Working Paper No. 8221
Publisher: 
Center for Economic Studies and ifo Institute (CESifo), Munich
Abstract: 
This paper evaluates a widely used, low stakes, teacher peer-to-peer observation and feedback program under Randomized Control Trial (RCT) conditions. Half of 181 volunteer primary schools in England were randomly selected to participate in a two-year program in which three fourth and fifth grade teachers observed each other. We find that two cohorts of students taught by treated teachers perform no better on externally graded national tests compared to business as usual. However this masks large heterogeneity; in small schools, which would have no choice over which teachers would be involved, we find negative impacts of the training (0.1-0.18SD), whereas we find positive impacts in larger schools (0.06-0.17SD). We conclude that the widely-used feedback program that we study is only productive in larger schools, and that centralised one-size-fits-fall teacher training interventions may be harmful.
Subjects: 
education
teachers
RCT
peer mentoring
JEL: 
I21
I28
M53
Document Type: 
Working Paper
Appears in Collections:

Files in This Item:
File
Size





Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.