Role of teacher characteristics and school resources in early mathematics learning

The authors investigated the degree to which school-level teacher characteristics and resources are related to the mathematics learning of kindergarten children using a sample drawn from a large US database. Kindergarten-level teacher characteristics were operationalised as collective teacher efficacy, teacher experience and teacher preparation; kindergarten resources were operationalised as efforts that schools make to reach out to parents, classrooms with mathematics manipulatives, and classroom technology. Kindergarten students learned more in mathematics over a year in schools where teachers’ collective efficacy was high. School resources yielded a range of significant yet mixed results in young children’s mathematics achievement. Notably, younger students and students entering kindergarten with lower levels of mathematical skills benefited greatly from classroom resources. Overall, the presence of classroom technology as a school-level resource was positively related with older kindergarten students’ learning. Based upon the findings, organisational and policy implications are discussed.