School effectiveness research focuses on variables at school and classroom level that are malleable by schools and their members and that are related to student learning outcomes. Numerous empirical studies and several meta-analyses have investigated the effects of school and classroom variables over and above individual student characteristics on student achievement, and serve as a basis of different comprehensive educational effectiveness models (e.g., Creemers & Kyriakides, 2006; Scheerens & Bosker, 1997; Stringfield, 1994; Wang, Haertel, & Walberg, 1993). However, while effects of teaching on student learning are relatively well understood (e.g., Baumert et al., 2010; Klieme et al., 2009), there is less rigorous knowledge about the way in which school processes may influence student outcomes.

The school has been considered “the unit of change” in educational systems. Improvement programs focus on professional development, collaboration, and school culture (e.g., shared norms and achievement orientations) – eventually changing classroom teaching and learning. Teacher cooperation is one of the important characteristics of schools which might be influential in this regard. It is suggested that (a) teacher cooperation contributes to teachers’ professional development and a coherent and consistent learning environment for students, and (b), in doing so, at least indirectly improves students’ cognitive and non-cognitive outcomes.

Based on this notion, the present contribution aimed at exploring the relationships between (1) self-reported cooperation of staff teaching the subject English as a foreign language, (2) instructional quality in the subject English as a foreign language, and (3) ninth-graders’ achievement and learning motivation in English. The study focused on the question to what extent teacher cooperation is related to instructional quality and – possibly mediated by instructional quality – to students’ learning outcomes. Concerning instructional quality, we drew on three basic dimensions that have been shown to link teaching and student outcomes in different school subjects: structure, cognitive challenge, and teacher support (e.g., Klieme, Lipowsky, Rakoczy, & Ratzka, 2006; Kunter et al., 2007).

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