Does Achievement Increase over Time? Another Look at the South Carolina PET Program

The basic skills achievement of students of 48 elementary school teachers who received in-service training in a program based on the work of Madeline Hunter, the Program for Effective Teaching (PET), was compared to the achievement of students of a sample of 34 teachers who had not received PET training (NOPET). The design was longitudinal in that classroom performance data were available for 4 consecutive years, the first being the year during which the PET training took place. Hunter's contention that 2 years of practice with PET subsequent to initial training are necessary for most teachers to achieve the "expert" teaching level was tested by comparing the average profiles for the 2 teacher groups. No evidence was found to support the hypothesis that trends over time favored the performance of students of PET teachers relative to the performance of students of NOPET teachers.