Effective teaching is a multifaceted endeavour influenced by various factors. It extends beyond the mere possession of subject knowledge and teaching experience and is intricately tied to teaching methods (Darling-Hammond, 1997; Hudson et al., 2021; Leino et al., 2022; Shulman, 1987; Wharton-McDonald et al., 1998). International large-scale assessments (ILSA) such as the Trends in Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) and Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) have been widely used to establish links between teachers and their students in mathematics (e.g., Toropova et al., 2019), science (e.g. Fauth et al., 2019) and in reading (e.g., Johansson et al., 2015; Myrberg et al. 2019). However, research on teacher effects has yielded conflicting and inconclusive findings (Blömeke & Olsen, 2019; Coenen et al., 2018; Goe, 2007), partly due to the diverse methodological approaches employed in various studies. A major contributing factor is the lack of comparability and precision in defining teacher competence and teaching quality indicators. Furthermore, significant variations exist among countries in terms of the length, structure, and content of teacher education and instruction, necessitating country-specific analyses with accurate information on these specific features.

Investigating teacher effects on student achievement through large-scale data, such as PIRLS assessment data, presents distinct advantages. Firstly, large-scale assessments provide large samples, where whole classes of students are sampled, allowing comprehensive analysis of teacher effects across diverse student populations. Secondly, these assessments offer multiple measures for evaluating teachers and their teaching quality. However, a major challenge with ILSAs when estimating the impact of teachers on student outcomes is that we cannot account for students’ prior achievement. This complicates the task of isolating the direct influence of teachers on student learning outcomes.

In the present study, we address this limitation by utilizing the Swedish PIRLS 2016 sample to which additional register information from earlier and later grades was added. This means that we are not only able to account for prior achievement but also investigate long-term teacher effects on student performance. More specifically we are investigating the relationships between teachers’ reading specializations and the short-term and long-term impact of teachers’ reading comprehension practices in grade 4 on student performance in the PIRLS assessment and students’ subject grade in Swedish in sixth grade. We make use of scores from PIRLS, students’ national test results in grade 3 as well as subject grade in Swedish in grade 6.

Our research questions are:

1. What are the relationships between teachers’ reading specialization and students’ PIRLS achievement and subject grade in Swedish in grade 6?
2. What are the relationships between teachers’ reading comprehension activities and students’ PIRLS achievement and subject grade in Swedish in grade 6?

The present study utilizes data from the Swedish sample in PIRLS 2016, comprising 4525 students and 214 teachers. Beyond the standard PIRLS assessment information, the Swedish dataset offers noteworthy extensions: information on students’ subject grades and national test scores. This unique feature allows us to access both earlier and later performance data for students. As a result, the current design possesses two features not commonly found in traditional PIRLS design. First, the current design includes students’ prior achievement in third grade, using national test results in Swedish. Second, we can study the effects of teacher characteristics and instruction in both the short and long term. Given that the PIRLS assessment takes place in fourth grade, we can analyze teacher effects in the short term, as students have had their PIRLS teachers for approximately 7-8 months. Additionally, by utilizing achievement data from grade 6, we can address the long-term effects of reading instruction and teacher specialization, considering that students in Sweden typically have had their teacher for 2.5 years in grade 6. As predictors we selected information on teachers’ specialization/s in reading pedagogy during teacher training, information about the time spent on language and reading instruction each week, as well as information about teachers’ classroom reading comprehension activities. As student outcomes, we selected students’ reading achievement in the PIRLS 2016 and Swedish achievement in grade 6. PIRLS 2016 was conducted both on paper and online and we use the scores from the paper-based assessment. Achievement in grade 6 was collected from subject grades, a letter scale ranging from F-A which, however, was converted to a numerical scale ranging from 0-5. Because teacher effects on student achievement can result from initial differences in student achievement rather than teacher competence, we controlled for students’ prior achievement in grade 3. This measure stems from national tests scores which are ranging from 0-18 points. The study employed a hierarchical design, treating students within classrooms as nested units. The study relied on multilevel regression to account for potential cluster effects that are due to the nature of the data (e.g., Hox, 2002). Sampling weights were used to account for the stratification. The main method was Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) with latent variables to investigate the relationships between the predictors and outcomes. We used Confirmatory Factor Analysis to model latent variables of specializations and reading comprehension activities. Data analysis employed SPSS 29 and Mplus version 8 software.

Our findings indicate a positive and significant relationship between teachers’ specializations in reading pedagogy and students’ Swedish grades (when controlling for prior achievement, β = .29 (.09), p< .01). This suggests that teachers with a specialization in reading pedagogy significantly influence student achievement, irrespective of students’ initial achievement level. However, this relationship does not extend to the PIRLS assessment results in grade 4. This discrepancy may be attributed to the fact that most students in Sweden have had their new teacher for only 7-8 months when the PIRLS assessment is administered. As a result, it is reasonable to assume that the short-term effects of the teacher may not be evident for achievement in PIRLS. Our initial investigations into the latent variable representing teachers’ reading comprehension activities did not reveal a significant relationship with the outcome variables. For this reason, we conducted further analyses to explore potential nonlinearities between reading comprehension activities and the two student outcomes, both with and without controlling for prior achievement. A significant curvilinear relationship was observed for teachers’ reading comprehension activities on PIRLS achievement and the Swedish grade. This implies that the relationship between reading comprehension activities and achievement was positive to a certain level, then declines. Further investigations of these relationships are needed. Limitations The teacher sample in PIRLS may not fully be representative of the entire teacher population in grade 4, however, the average years of teaching experience in our sample align with those of the total population. Another potential limitation could stem from ceiling effects within the measure of the prior achievement, as these may not adequately differentiate the highest performing students. However, the correlation to PIRLS achievement was relatively high.

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