Teachers Matter: Attracting, Developing and Retaining Effective Teachers

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Teachers MatterAttracting, Developing and
Retaining Effective Teachers
International analysis of the teaching profession

• Presentation by Paulo Santiago, Directorate for
  Education, OECD

Improving Quality in Education OECD-Mexico Joint
Conference Mexico City, 8-12 December 2008
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Outline of Presentation
Session 1
1. Key features of the OECD Project Attracting,
Developing and Retaining Effective Teachers
2. The relevance and importance of teacher policy
3. Making teaching an attractive career choice
4. Developing teachers knowledge and skills
Session 2
5. Recruiting, selecting and employing teachers
6. Retaining effective teachers in schools
7. Developing and implementing teacher policy
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Part 1 Key features of the OECD project
Attracting, Developing and Retaining Effective
Teachers
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The OECD projects contribution

• A collaborative, cross-national process to
• Better understand the nature of the concerns
• Analyse the factors that shape the attraction,
  development and retention of effective teachers
• Identify policy options and the conditions under
  which they are successfully implemented
• Help countries to learn from each other

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Analytical approach
OECDs project Attracting, Developing and
Retaining Effective Teachers

• The Activity has drawn on country experience and
  research to identify a range of policy directions
  in five main areas
• Making teaching an attractive career choice
• Developing teachers knowledge and skills
• Recruiting, selecting and employing teachers
• Retaining effective teachers in schools
• Developing and implementing teacher policy

25 participating countries Australia, Austria,
Belgium (Flemish and French Comm.), Canada
(Quebec), Chile, Denmark, Finland, France,
Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Italy,
Japan, Korea, Mexico, the Netherlands, Norway,
Slovak Republic, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland,
United Kingdom, United States.
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Methodology

• Cross-Country Collaboration
• Country Background Reports
• National Co-ordinator
• National Advisory Committee
• Workshops and Seminars
• Country Visits (for some countries)
• Country Notes (for countries visited)
• Commissioned Papers
• Extensive Reviews of Literature
• Data Analyses.

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Part 2 The relevance and importance of teacher
policy
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Three broad conclusions emerge from research on
student learning
The Impact of Teachers and Teaching on Student
Learning
1. Largest source of variation in student
learning is attributable to differences in what
students bring to school their abilities and
attitudes, and family and community background.
2. Of those variables which are potentially open
to policy influence, factors to do with teachers
and teaching are the most important influences on
student learning.
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Three broad conclusions emerge from research on
student learning (continued)
The Impact of Teachers and Teaching on Student
Learning (continued)
3. It is difficult to predict who is going to be
a good teacher just by considering the more
measurable characteristics of teachers (e.g.
qualifications, teaching experience, and
indicators of academic ability and subject-matter
knowledge) .

• There are many important aspects of teacher
  quality that are not captured by the more
  measurable characteristics, such as
• Ability to convey ideas in clear and convincing
  ways
• To create effective learning environments for
  different types of students
• to foster productive teacher-student
  relationships
• to be enthusiastic and creative
• to work effectively with colleagues and parents.

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The importance of teachers
? Teachers are the most influential resource in
schools teachers vary widely in performance,
and lifting teacher quality is the policy most
likely to improve student performance.
? Teaching is the largest single employer of
graduate labour (2.6 of the total labour force
in OECD countries) and constitute the most
important component of expenditure on schools
(64 of current expenditure on schools is
allocated to teachers compensation, on average
in OECD countries).
? Many countries have concerns about the teacher
workforce in terms of shortages of well-qualified
applicants, and whether enough teachers have the
knowledge and skills to meet the needs of modern
schooling. The ageing of the profession is
compounding such concerns.
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Teachers Roles are changing
Teachers are now expected to have much broader
roles

• At the individual student level
• Initiating and managing learning processes
• Responding effectively to the learning needs of
  individual learners
• Integrating formative and summative assessment.

• At the classroom level
• Teaching in multicultural classrooms
• New cross-curricular emphases
• Integrating students with special needs.

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Teachers Roles are changing
Teachers are now expected to have much broader
roles (continued)

• At the school level
• Working and planning in teams
• Evaluation and systematic improvement planning
• ICT use in teaching and administration
• Projects between schools, and international
  cooperation
• Management and shared leadership.

• At the level of parents and the wider community
• Providing professional advice to parents
• Building community partnerships for learning.

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Part 3 Making teaching an attractive career
choice
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Policy objective
Teacher policy needs to ensure that motivated
people with high-level knowledge and skills
choose to become teachers.
Context
-- Close connection with issues of retention
-- Attractiveness to be seen relative to other
occupations
-- Focused on individuals who are currently not
in the profession
-- Related to policies defining the number of
teachers needed
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Policy priorities
Improving the image and status of
teaching General strategy must involve
publicising that teachers are highly skilled
professionals doing important work

• Initiatives
• Building stronger links between the schools and
  the community
• General campaigns in the media.

Improving teachings salary competitiveness

• Target larger salary rises
• Certain types of teachers (e.g. beginning
  teachers)
• Subjects in short-supply
• Geographical areas of shortage.

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Policy priorities
Improving employment conditions Competitiveness
of teaching as a career choice can improve if
flexible conditions of employment are provided

• Initiatives
• Providing opportunities for part-time teaching
• Opportunities to gain experience outside
  schools
• Job exchanges with industry.

Expanding the supply pool of potential teachers

• Open the profession to individuals with relevant
  experience outside education
• Recognise the skills and experience gained
  outside education
• Offer flexible opportunities for pedagogical
  preparation.

Expand mobility of teachers across educational
levels and develop strategies to attract former
teachers
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Policy priorities
Making reward mechanisms more flexible The
incentive structure needs to be used in a more
flexible manner

• Examples of initiatives
• Salary allowances for teaching in difficult
  areas
• Transportation assistance for teachers in remote
  areas
• Bonuses for teachers with skills in short
  supply
• Non-monetary strategies.

Improving entrance conditions for new teachers

• Initiatives
• Well-structured and resourced programmes of
  induction
• Selection processes that ensure the best
  candidates get the available jobs
• Reduced working load.

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Policy priorities
Rethinking the trade-off between the
student-teacher ratio and average teacher
salary Further spending on schools can be used to
either reduce student-teacher ratios or increase
teachers average salaries.
Capitalising on an oversupply of teachers

• Opportunity to be more selective about those who
  are employed
• Ensure that new skills and energy are not lost
  to the profession
• Opportunity to improve working conditions
• Ensure that the quality of teachers preparation
  is not undermined by the large number of
  candidates.

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Part 4 Developing teachers knowledge and skills
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Policy objective
Teacher policy needs to ensure that teacher
education adequately prepares teachers for the
demands of modern schooling, beginning teachers
get the support they need and that practising
teachers are provided with opportunities and
incentives for on-going professional development
throughout the career.
Context

• Teachers need to be prepared for a much broader
  range of tasks at
• student,
• classroom,
• school,
• community and parent level.

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Policy priorities
Teacher development to be viewed as a continuum
in a lifelong learning perspective
Initial teacher education to provide the
foundations for ongoing learning, rather than
producing ready-made professionals
Teaching needs to become a knowledge-rich
profession
Teaching needs to become a knowledge-rich
profession in which individuals continually
develop, and have the incentives and
opportunities to do so, research is integrated
into practice, and schools become professional
learning communities that encourage and draw on
teachers development
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Policy priorities

• Developing teacher profiles
• Clear and concise standards of what teachers are
  expected to know and be able to do
• reflect broad range of competencies.
• provide framework to guide and integrate initial
  teacher education, certification, induction and
• on-going professional development.
• should be evidence-based and reflect student
  learning objectives.
• should be built on active involvement by teaching
  profession.

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Policy priorities
Initial teacher education

• Improve selection into teacher education
• Information and counselling
• Assessment of candidates
• Early school experience
• Incentives for high potentials.

• A flexible initial teacher education system
• Concurrent and consecutive models offer
  distinctive benefits and countries gain by
  offering both
• Modular, common elements, part-time, distance
  education
• Post-graduate degrees

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Policy priorities
Initial teacher education

• Alternate routes for mid-career changers
• Most countries now offer alternative teacher
  education programmes for side entrants.
• Special programmes in traditional teacher ed.
  institutions
• In context of adult education
• Distance learning
• School-based programmes

• Strengthen partnerships between teacher education
  institutions and schools
• Overt and deliberate partnerships
• Earlier and longer field experience
• Broader field experience encompassing the full
  range of a teachers professional tasks
• More resources to support field experiences

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Policy priorities
Initial teacher education

• Accrediting teacher education programmes
• Means to ensure that diverse teacher education
  programmes meet the standards set by the teaching
  field at large
• Accreditation to focus more on the outcomes of
  teacher education programmes than on inputs,
  curriculum and processes
• Teacher profiles very useful mechanisms for
  clarifying expectations

• Certifying new teachers
• Certification requirements more likely to exist
  where the provision of teacher education is
  diverse
• Way to align teacher education programmes with
  school needs
• Certification to be linked to successful
  completion of probationary period
• Requirements to be more linked to output criteria

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Policy priorities

• Strengthening induction programmes
• Formalise induction programmes
• Qualify mentor teachers
• Provide sufficient resources for induction
• reduced teaching obligation for mentors and
  beginning teachers
• Link successful completion of induction to
  certification

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Policy priorities

• Integrating professional development throughout
  the teaching career
• Provide incentives for lifelong learning of all
  teachers
• Entitle teachers to release time and/or financial
  support for professional development
• Create incentives e.g., link professional
  development to teacher appraisal and career
  advancement
• Link individual teacher development with school
  improvement needs

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Policy priorities

• Broaden the range of different professional
  development opportunities, e.g.
• peer review and action research
• mutual school visits
• teacher and school networks
• Provide more coherent framework for professional
  development, develop teachers learning
  communities
• training, practice and feedback
• follow-up rather than one shot events
• teacher portfolios

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Policy priorities

• Improve the provision of professional
  development
• Open up market for professional development by
  encouraging a range of providers in response to
  school and teacher demand
• Evaluate impact of different approaches to
  professional development
• Inform schools and teachers about effective
  strategies and programmes

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Muchas Gracias por su atención
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Part 5 Recruiting, selecting and employing
teachers
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Policy objective
Teacher policy needs to ensure that the best
available teachers are selected for employment,
and that individual schools have the teachers
they need.
Context
-- Recruitment and selection mechanisms are
critical in linking incentives to the overall
quality of the teaching workforce -- Teachers
employment conditions need to be considered in
light of public sector employment as a whole.
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Policy priorities

• Using more flexible terms of employment
• Employment status based on the requirement that
  teachers renew their certificates after a period
  of time, such as every 5-7 years

• Principles
• Teachers achieve employment security by
  continuing to do a good job, rather than by
  regulation
• Periodic review provides the opportunity to
  recognise and acknowledge quality teaching
• Basis for renewal could be as simple as an
  attestation that teachers are meeting the
  standards.

• Pre-requisites
• Ensuring an open, fair and transparent system of
  teacher evaluation undertaken by individuals
  properly trained
• Ensuring that teachers have opportunities to
  improve their practice, thereby improving their
  ability to secure their posts
• Creating fair but speedy mechanisms to address
  poor performance.

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Policy priorities
Providing schools with more responsibility for
teacher personnel development Schools need to
have more responsibility and accountability
for teacher selection, working conditions, and
development.

• Pre-requisites
• Developing school leaders skills in personnel
  management
• Providing disadvantaged schools with greater
  resources
• Improving information availability in the
  teacher labour market
• Monitoring the outcomes of a more decentralised
  approach
• Creating independent appeals procedures to
  ensure fairness and protect teachers rights.

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Policy priorities
Broadening the criteria for teacher
selection The selection criteria for new
teachers need to be broadened to ensure that the
applicants with the greatest potential are
identified

• Implications
• Weight accorded to seniority to be reduced in
  some systems
• Greater weight to be given to characteristics
  which are harder to measure e.g. enthusiasm,
  commitment and sensitivity to student needs
• For countries which rely on competitive
  examinations, there is the need for clear
  statements of what beginning teachers need to
  know and be able to do as effective practitioners.

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Policy priorities
Making a probationary period mandatory The
satisfactory completion of a probationary period
of 1-2 years should be mandatory before full
certification

• Pre-requisites
• Beginning teachers should be given every
  opportunity to work in a stable and
  well-supported school environment
• The decision about certification should be taken
  by a panel which is well-trained and resourced
  for assessing new teachers.

Meeting short-term staffing needs Establish
mechanisms to make replacement teachers readily
available and provide budget flexibility to
employ them
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Policy priorities
Encouraging greater teacher mobility Provide
incentives for and remove barriers to greater
mobility of teachers within the school sector and
from and to other sectors of activity
Improving information flows and the monitoring of
the teacher labour market
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Part 6 Retaining effective teachers in schools
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Policy objective
Teacher policy needs to ensure that teachers work
in an environment which facilitates success, and
that effective teachers wish to continue in
teaching.
Context

• Close connection with issues of attracting new
  teachers
• A low rate of teacher attrition does not
  indicate that all is well
• Should, or can, teaching be regarded as a
  lifetime career?

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Policy priorities
Evaluating and rewarding effective teaching
There needs to be a stronger emphasis on teacher
evaluation for improvement purposes Opportunity
for teachers work to be recognised and
celebrated and help both teachers and schools to
identify developmental needs

• Pre-requisites
• Teacher appraisal to occur within a framework
  provided by profession-wide agreed statements of
  standards of professional performance
• Evaluators need to be trained and evaluated
  themselves
• Evaluation frameworks and tools need to be
  provided.

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Policy priorities
Evaluating and rewarding effective teaching

• Evaluation can provide a basis for rewarding
  teachers for exemplary performance.
• Through speed at which teacher progresses in
  career
• Using non-monetary rewards
• Focussing on group rewards.

Pre-requisites Need to ensure that assessment
measures reflect school objectives, and take
account of the school and classroom contexts in
which teachers are working.
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Policy priorities
Providing more opportunities for career variety
and diversification
Dual Approach
(i) The creation of positions associated with
specific tasks and roles, which would lead to
differentiation of a largely horizontal kind
involving release time rather than differentiated
pay.
(ii) A competency-based teaching career ladder
associated with extra responsibilities, which
would lead to differentiation more vertical in
nature.
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Policy priorities
Improving leadership and school climate
A range of initiatives should be taken to
strengthen leadership in schools

• Improve training, selection and evaluation
  processes for school principals
• Establish leadership teams in schools
• School leaders to be trained and supported in
  conducting evaluations and linking them to school
  planning.

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Policy priorities
Improving working conditions
There needs to be an explicit recognition of the
wide variety of tasks that teaching actually
entails
Well trained support and administrative staff can
help to reduce the burden on teachers and free
them to concentrate on the tasks of teaching and
learning
Better facilities at school for staff preparation
and planning would help in building collegiality
and in programme provision
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Policy priorities
Providing more flexible working hours and
conditions
Create programmes that enable teachers to work
part-time, take more leave opportunities, and
reduce their working hours

• School-systems should be more pro-active in
  ensuring that schools provide attractive working
  environments for older teachers
• Professional development activities to meet the
  needs of older teachers
• Reduced working hours
• New tasks and roles in school.

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Part 7 Developing and implementing teacher
policy
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Priorities for implementation
Essential to successful policy implementation to
engage all stakeholders in the process. Teachers
need a sense of ownership of reform
The teaching profession must adapt a great deal
so that it can act in a constructive manner
within a fast-changing society if it is to retain
the confidence of society
On-going systematic dialogue and consultation are
fundamental for the process of policy
implementation
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Priorities for implementation
Teachers should be more active in policy
development, and take the lead in defining
professional standards e.g. through Teaching
Councils
The research and data base informing teacher
policy is fragmented, and needs to be
strengthened at national and international levels
More extensive monitoring and evaluation of
innovation and reform is beneficial. There is a
need for pilot studies before widespread
implementation
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Muchas Gracias por su atención
For further information and other
documentation www.oecd.org/edu/teacherpolicy p
aulo.santiago_at_oecd.org