The correlation between ‘Teacher Readiness’ and student learning improvement

This article reports the findings from a study that compared states of ‘teacher readiness’ with the learning performance of students. The central proposition is that high states of ‘teacher readiness’ in a school would be an indicator of improvement in whole of school student learning. This proposition is based on research evidence implicating the teacher in student learning outcome success and the key role played by school leaders. As an adjunct to this proposition we also sought to compare ICSEA values1 and funding levels per school in an attempt to identify other improvement considerations. The findings of this study indicate that high levels of ‘teacher readiness’, as defined by the ACE approach, are associated with effective teaching and improvement in student outcomes. The study also drew attention to the idea that ACE focused leadership within a school has more impact on student achievement outcomes than external factors, such as school funding or even the socio-educational positioning of the school.