10 Proven Ways To Improve Online Teacher Performance
Did you know, something as simple as structured feedback to your teachers can lead to a 10% improvement in student ratings? For online education businesses, this isn’t just a statistic - it’s the difference between happy students who stay, or disappointed ones that leave. Which means schools lose revenue, retention drops, and brand reputation suffers.
But the truth is, achieving and maintaining exceptional teacher performance isn’t easy. It requires constant attention, the right expertise, and resources and capacity to monitor and mentor teachers around the clock.
Here are 10 proven ways to improve your online teachers’ performance.
1. Set Clear KPI’s (Key Performance Indicators)
This is essential in maintaining consistent quality and driving excellence. It guides teachers and management in which areas to focus on.
What We Do: Set Keep Promise Indicators (KPI's) Above Client Benchmark
When we onboard a new client, we don’t just want to meet their expectations – we set out to exceed them. We align our internal measures and targets with the performance metrics that matter most to their business and then set targets above those benchmarks.
This means our entire team is working not just to meet requirements, but to deliver beyond what’s expected, ensuring students have exceptional learning experiences every time.
Teacher quality isn’t just a performance metric — it’s the single greatest factor influencing student outcomes. In online education, where the human connection is everything, great teaching defines great learning.
2. Hiring for Value Alignment
Yes, qualifications and teaching skills matter a great deal, but it’s just as important to assess candidates on other factors such as personality, culture fit, and personal belief systems.
What We Do: We Look Deeper
We assess a teacher’s intrinsic values to ensure they align with ours - because values drive passion, motivation, and long-term performance. Teachers who share our values are not only more fulfilled and inspired, but also more invested in creating meaningful learning experiences, which translates into better lessons, happier students, and stronger client outcomes.
3. Customized Training Programs
Offering training to teams should be a non-negotiable - a LinkedIn report found that 94% of employees would stay longer at a company that invests in their professional development. But what it shouldn’t be is outdated and irrelevant, which doesn’t benefit the teacher or the company in day-to-day outcomes.
What We Do: Targeted, Real-Time Training
Every online education business we’ve worked with has been unique. That’s why our teachers undergo both internal onboarding and customized training based on each client’s specific educational and operational needs. Before they teach their first lesson, teachers are fully equipped with best practices, client-specific standards, and ongoing learning updates.
Further than that, frequent meetings and monthly BI reports and analysis allow us to identify new training opportunities and respond to changing needs quickly.
Investing in ongoing teacher development isn’t optional — it’s essential. The most successful online schools are the ones that view development as a continuous cycle of feedback, learning, and growth.
4. Lesson Observations for Quality Assurance
One can never turn a blind eye to student feedback or assume that teachers are automatically delivering on standards. Lesson observations are one of the most effective ways to maintain teaching quality and support professional growth.
What We Do: Don’t Leave Performance To Chance
Our management teams regularly observe lessons - either live or through recordings - to assess teaching quality, engagement, and classroom atmosphere. Where needed, we introduce performance matrices and targeted coaching, making sure no student experience falls below standard.
Teachers who receive this feedback and implement the recommendations see, on average, a 7–10% increase in student ratings within the following quarter.
5. A Core Value That Supports Innovation
When continuous improvement is embedded into an organization’s DNA, it creates an environment where teams feel empowered to experiment, innovate, and evolve. This mindset fosters creativity, adaptability, and ownership.
What We Do: Our “Always Better” Core Value
This isn’t just a catchy phrase, it’s how we operate. As one of our values, we constantly ask: how can we improve? Even if the benchmark is achieved, we aim to raise it. If a teacher’s rating is 4.8/5, we push towards 4.9, and then 5. If a project was successful, we celebrate the outcome, then ask how we can do even better next time.
This mindset of continuous improvement guarantees that our teachers (and our clients) never settle for “good enough.”
Sustaining teacher quality at scale requires innovation to be built into your DNA. It’s not just words on a wall — it’s encouraging creative thinking and adaptability in every aspect of teaching and management at core level.
6. Teacher Satisfaction Surveys
How can we support our teams if we don't understand their pain points and roadblocks? By collecting and acting on teacher feedback, companies can identify areas of improvement before they become issues and enhance retention.
What We Do: Ask Our Teachers What They Need To Succeed
Twice a year, we run a satisfaction survey across our entire teacher team. This gives us direct insight into areas we need to invest or improve - whether it’s additional resources, system upgrades, or new forms of support. In addition to this, we have frequent quality questionnaires and feedback opportunities throughout the year where teams can have their voices heard.
7. Professional and Career Development
This is one of the most powerful tools for sustaining teacher performance, growth, and retention. By investing in structured learning and future career advancement opportunities, organizations empower teachers with the skills, tools, and best teaching practices. When professional growth is prioritized, excellence becomes a standard rather than an exception.
And when good teachers feel valued, equipped and supported, they stay longer!
What We Do: The Inspire Academy
Is our online learning platform that offers a rich library of professional development courses, with new material added weekly. From beginner training to advanced mastery classes tailored by award-winning educators, to certification courses, our teachers gain practical skills that improve classroom delivery and efficiency.
But we go beyond technical teaching skills only, offering training on creativity, troubleshooting, and even digital hacks that make their work easier. This doesn’t just boost performance but also builds long-term career growth.
Teacher quality doesn’t happen by chance — it’s the result of systems, structure, and support. A well-designed teacher management and development model ensures consistency, drives accountability, and gives teachers the space to thrive.
8. Personal Wellbeing
High-performing teachers aren’t just technically skilled - they’re emotionally balanced, confident, and inspired. Supporting teachers’ personal growth fosters resilience, motivation, and wellbeing, all of which directly influence classroom performance and reduces attrition.
What We Do: Develop The Whole Person, Not Just The Teacher
Happy Teachers = Happy Students. Through our Evolve program, we provide weekly life coaching, book and movie clubs, a fitness community, and even sustainability groups. And with Evolve On Demand, teachers can access these sessions at their own pace, not missing out due to their schedule.
This investment in physical, emotional, and mental wellbeing creates happy, motivated, and inspired teachers that create more positive, engaging learning environments for their students.
9. Impact Beyond the Classroom
Teachers often enter the profession because they feel a call to make a difference in the world. Enabling them to do so both in and out of the classroom amplifies their sense of purpose. Opportunities to contribute in meaningful ways not only enhances engagement and job satisfaction, but also translates into more empathetic, motivated, and high-performing educators.
What We Do: Purpose-led Impact Initiatives
Our Impact program is at the centre of The Really Great Teacher Company’s purpose. A division of this is Impact Volunteer, which creates opportunity for team members to volunteer their time, energy and resources to a variety of initiatives, such as mentoring underprivileged children from around the world, helping kids learn how to read, or even generating educational content for organisations.
Beyond the positive difference this makes for communities, volunteering enhances teachers’ empathy, leadership, and connectedness. These qualities and skills directly strengthen their teaching, ensuring students experience compassionate, engaged educators who bring real-world purpose into the classroom.
Other divisions include Impact 1%, where a percentage of each lesson a teacher teaches is dedicated to activist-led organisations on a mission to transform education and nature and sustainability around the world. As well as Impact Operate, that supports sustainability practices throughout the company and at home.
Impact overall ensures our teams feel like they are contributing to a greater purpose, and further builds company pride.
10. Performance Management
Sometimes, teachers struggle, even with strong recruitment and training processes. An effective performance management plan provides a supportive way to help talented teachers get back on track. It focuses on identifying root causes, offering guidance, and tracking progress through measurable goals.
What We Do: Performance Improvement Program (PIP)
Our PIP results prove that the program not only helps improve teacher ratings, but also boosts retention. On average, teachers improve their ratings from below average to benchmark within 1-2 months of being on the program. And more importantly, continue to maintain their strong ratings.
In many cases, teachers who enter our PIP don’t just recover - they transform into top performers who excel beyond expectations!
Exceptional Performance Isn’t Out of Reach
One of the biggest fears for online education businesses is: “What if our teachers don’t perform?” But here’s the good news - you don’t have to carry that burden alone. At The Really Great Teacher Company, we’ve built a proven system that not only manages but elevates teacher performance to world-class levels.
With us, you gain:
- Consistently high teacher ratings
- Engaged and motivated teaching teams
- Happier students who stay longer
- Better ROI through retention and brand reputation
Exceptional teacher performance is the result of the right systems, support, and expertise. And that’s exactly what we bring to our partners.
Ready to take your online teachers from average to exceptional? We would love to help!