School effects and teacher effects in Dutch elementary education

In the present article it is investigated to what extent teacher effects can account for differences between schools. A data set is analyzed which contains information about students who were followed during their last two years in elementary education. One group of students had been taught by one and the same teacher during these two years, whereas the other group had been taught by two different teachers. The analyses did not focus exclusively on student achievement. Teacher perceptions and teacher goals were investigated as well. Significant teacher effects were found for all nine variables in the analyses. In most cases the differences between teachers outweigh the differences between schools. The analyses revealed one important exception. Within schools the teachers differed only slightly with respect to their expectations about the careers of their students in secondary education.