Teachers Matter:
Attracting, 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
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
Part 1: Key features of the OECD
project Attracting, Developing
and Retaining Effective
Teachers
The OECD project’s
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
OECD’s project “Attracting, Developing and Retaining Effective Teachers”
Analytical approach
The Activity has drawn on country experience and research
to identify a range of policy directions in five main areas:
1.
Making teaching an attractive career choice
2. Developing teachers’ knowledge and skills
3. Recruiting, selecting and employing teachers
4. Retaining effective teachers in schools
5. 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.
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.
Part 2: The relevance and
importance of teacher policy
The Impact of Teachers and Teaching on
Student Learning
Three broad conclusions emerge from research 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.
The Impact of Teachers and Teaching on
Student Learning (continued)
Three broad conclusions emerge from research 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.
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.
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.
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.
Part 3: Making teaching an
attractive career choice
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
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 teaching’s salary competitiveness
Target larger salary rises:
 Certain types of teachers (e.g. beginning teachers);
 Subjects in short-supply;
 Geographical areas of shortage.
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
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.
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 studentteacher 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.
Part 4: Developing teachers’
knowledge and skills
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.
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
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.
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
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 teacher’s
professional tasks
More resources to support field experiences
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
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
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
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
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
Muchas Gracias por su
atención
Part 5: Recruiting, selecting and
employing teachers
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 welltrained 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
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
Part 6: Retaining effective
teachers in schools
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?
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 professionwide agreed statements of standards of professional performance;
 Evaluators need to be trained and evaluated themselves;
 Evaluation frameworks and tools need to be provided.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
Part 7: Developing and
implementing teacher policy
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
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
Muchas Gracias por su
atención
For further information and other documentation:
www.oecd.org/edu/teacherpolicy
paulo.santiago@oecd.org