How are school performance and school climate related to teachers’ experience?

Abstract

Students in the best-performing schools achieve significantly higher PISA scores on average than students in the lowest-performing schools. Some aspects of school climate, such as the disciplinary climate in science lessons, also vary greatly between schools. These between-school differences in school performance and climate are strongly related to differences in the socioeconomic status of students attending the schools. In addition, schools with more experienced teachers tend to perform better in PISA and also have a classroom climate that is more conducive to learning (on average across 18 countries and economies that administered the optional teacher questionnaire in 2015).