New Directions for School Leadership and the
Teaching Profession
Victorian Council of Deans of Education submission
VCDE response to New Directions for School Leadership and the Teaching Profession paper
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Victorian Council of Deans of Education (VCDE)
response to
DEECD New Directions for School Leadership and the Teaching Profession,
Discussion paper.
August 31, 2012
Introduction
The VCDE welcomes the opportunity to comment on the DEECD New Directions for School
Leadership and the Teaching Profession, Discussion paper, issued in June 2012. Like DEECD,
VCDE is committed to preparing and developing high quality teachers and school leaders
that ensure high level learning outcomes for every student in Victoria’s schools. VCDE
supports to three broad directions outlined in the paper:
1. Attract great people into teaching: attract stronger candidates and improve their
preparation
2. Create a high performance profession: stimulate a culture of excellence and effective
professional development
3. Provide strong direction and support: elevate the role of leadership at school and
system levels
We look forward to working in collaboration with DEECD to progress this agenda. The
following commentary suggests ways in which we can do this. We follow the requested
format – What is missing? What are the priorities? Where should effort be directed?
1. What is missing? What do we question?
We would like to see a clear statement in the document that highlights the complexity of
teachers' work particularly for those teachers working with students from low socioeconomic backgrounds, students for whom English is a second language, and students with
a disability etc. It is important to foreground the professional knowledge base needed for
this task and the complex professional decision-making in which teachers have to engage in
order to teach effectively.
In seeking to establish a rationale for change, we caution against unexamined comparisons
of Victoria with countries with very different cultural backgrounds. Such comparisons are
not always helpful if the cultural differences are not taken sufficiently into account.
Much of the critique and suggestions in the paper draw heavily on the views of paid
consultants and/ or advocacy groups, many of whom are economists who do not necessarily
have a deep understanding of education. The universally accepted indicator of rigorous,
valid and reliable research is that it has been scrutinised by experts in the field as part of the
peer review process. Unfortunately, none of the references used to support the claims
being made in the paper fall into this category. Meanwhile, decades of relevant peerreviewed research have essentially been ignored by the paper’s authors.
VCDE response to New Directions for School Leadership and the Teaching Profession paper
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Accurate interpretation and referencing of the relevant research is needed as the basis for
analysis of the issues identified and the suggestions for change. For example, the statement
on p.5 indicates there is clear evidence that reducing class size does not have significant
impact on improving student outcomes. The reality is that empirical evidence presents a
complicated picture. What the research does show is that reduction in class size alone, does
not lead to significantly improved learning outcomes.
John Hattie's research is cited (though not the original source) to justify a statement that the
“quality of teaching has the largest impact on student learning outcomes, other than a
student's socioeconomic background". Unfortunately, only part of the research is cited.
Hattie's research indicated that the impact of teachers contributed to around 30% of the
variance in student outcomes. The rest of the variance is mostly due to student and
background factors. Hattie found that the majority of teachers had a positive impact on
student learning, but he was interested in what teachers needed to do to add more value
and have a greater than expected impact to make the most of that 30%. A big leap has been
made in the paper to say that the ‘bottom’ five per cent of teachers should be exited and
replaced.
Some suggestions in the paper are likely to be enormously costly and difficult to implement.
Removing the 'worst 5%' of teachers for example would mean developing rigorous and
authentic assessment methods and tools and training assessors fully to make these high
stakes judgements. It would be necessary to evaluate or assess every teacher every year
rather than just arbitrarily choosing a group who seem to be poorly performing to be
assessed. With over 40,000 teachers public school teachers in Victoria we would estimate at
least 120,000 person days to do this effectively. For the 2000+ teachers who will lose their
jobs under the scheme there will need to be avenues of appeal and tribunals to hear cases
of wrongful dismissal. The identification and firing can't be left to individual principals for a
whole range of reasons including validity, reliability, credibility, fairness, relationships and
morale. The great cost in implementing this plan would be far better spent on rigorous,
relevant professional learning programs for teachers and principals.
VCDE is disappointed that the paper includes unsupported claims such as “All too often
Victoria’s teacher training, referred to as pre-service education, falls short of the demands
of today’s schools’ (p.10). It is important to interrogate the data. For example, in a recent
national survey (Mayer et al., 2011-2014; Mayer et al., 2012-2013) responded to by 1,400
graduate teachers in their first year of teaching, the majority of respondents (73 per cent)
agreed or strongly agreed they would recommend their teaching program to someone else.
Results of this survey indicate that graduate teachers feel well prepared by their teacher
education programs in the following areas:
 Understanding ways in which students learn – using a range of sources for teaching
and learning
 Knowledge and skills to engage in reflective practice
 Evaluating and adjusting teaching in classrooms
Graduate teachers feel less well prepared by their teacher education programs in the
following areas:
 Teaching to linguistic diversity in the classroom
VCDE response to New Directions for School Leadership and the Teaching Profession paper
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
Communicating with parents and carers and working with the school’s local
community
 Supporting students with a disability
Further interrogation of these sorts of findings is needed to consider the implications for
teacher preparation in Victoria and nationally.
2. What are the priorities?
VCDE supports the goal of attracting high quality candidates into teaching, including school
leavers, those who have just completed a non-education bachelor degree, and those who
are looking for a career change. Unfortunately, when we think about attracting high quality
candidates into teaching, too often the focus is only on school leavers and their ATAR
scores. We must also consider how we can attract high quality graduates into a
postgraduate teacher preparation courses and also those who are considering a career
change and could bring relevant knowledge, skills and aptitudes to the profession. We argue
that creating attractive conditions of professional work will likely lead to high quality
entrants into teach education. It should be remembered that, for teacher registration
purposes, entry into undergraduate teacher education already includes a range of additional
entry requirements such as a minimum grade for English together with a pass in specific
Maths, as well as IELTS requirements for some. VCDE also suggests that incentives such as
scholarships are required and changes could be made to enhance career options and
pathways and the standing of teaching as a profession in the community.
Notwithstanding these considerations, VCDE argues that more attention needs to be made
at point of entry into teaching/ at point of graduation, not at point of entry into teacher
preparation. We pick up this issue in the following section “Where should effort be
directed?” and provide some suggestions. We also urge a focus on the ‘learning to teach
continuum’, where the ongoing professional learning of teachers and also school leaders is
an important focus.
Before we do that, we discuss a framing to consider in order to build a professional
accountability framework to drive the agendas in enhancing the quality of the profession.
Like many countries, teacher education in Australia is current being positioned as a ‘policy
problem’ (e.g. Cochran-Smith & Fries, 2005; Grimmett, 2009). Policy debates around teacher
education governance have become increasingly polarized, posing the deregulation of
university-based professional preparation on the one hand (often in tandem with calls for
increased centralized control of curriculum and pedagogy) against a defence of
professionalism grounded in the academy on the other. Those promoting deregulation
argue there is little valid evidence to support the value added by teacher education as it is
currently practiced, and argue instead for regulatory standards and performance indicators
to ensure quality. On the other hand, those calling for increased professionalisation suggest
policies and practices that promote professional self-regulation and semi-autonomy, arguing
that the most important factor in student learning is the teacher and that therefore time
and money should be put into professionalising the teaching workforce with high level
qualifications and on-going professional learning.
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As noted in the paper, the Finnish approach is focused on increased professionalisation
achieved through more comprehensive and rigorous preparation. One aspect of this
increased professionalisation is the need to allow for more autonomy and professional self
regulation for educators in practice. The increased professionalisation is rewarded by high
rates of pay. The focus on professionalisation and higher rates of pay together attracts high
quality candidates. However, what the Discussion Paper seems to suggest is a hybrid
teaching profession that draws on aspects of both policy positions described above. It
recommends multiple entry pathways, which would mean that not all entrants would have
comprehensive and rigorous preparation, and that success of the teacher education
pathway will be judged in terms of student outcomes measured in terms of success in
international testing regimes. The paper anticipates that the success of teachers, in terms of
the outcomes of their students, will be rewarded through higher rates of pay for the ‘best’
teachers. It is difficult to see how such a hybrid teaching profession will allow for more selfregulation for educators in practice, which is the goal of professionalisation and an
important characteristic of ‘top tier’ education systems like Finland’s.
VCDE supports attracting great people into teaching, creating a high performance profession
and providing strong direction and support, all within a framework of increased and
increasing professionalisation. The priority should be on increasing the professionalisation
of teaching through comprehensive and rigorous preparation and ongoing professional
learning, alongside clear career structures and rigorously judged transition points, allowing
more autonomy and professional self regulation for educators in practice. We believe that
such an emphasis would, over time, attract higher quality candidates to the profession.
It should also be highlighted that teacher education programs must include an appropriate
balance between content knowledge and teaching method knowledge. Research by
Darling-Hammond and others (e.g. Darling-Hammond & Bransford, 2005) points to the fact
that being in possession of the content knowledge of a discipline in and of itself is not
sufficient to be able to teach it so that it results in learning for others. It is the knowledge of
how to teach for learning that makes for the most successful outcomes for learners.
Method of teaching and the content to be taught need to be treated interdependently in
teacher education courses so that method knowledge is contextualized and linked to
specific ways of knowing and realms of meaning as bound up with the discipline area and
content concerned.
3. Where should effort be directed?
VCDE argues that efforts be directed in three main areas to improve the quality of the
teaching profession. To do this work, teacher educators (pre-service and in-service) must
work closely with the profession – teachers, principals, bureaucrats etc
1. Clear expectations in relation to quality teaching linked to enhanced student learning
outcomes – professional standards for teaching
2. Authentic assessment of graduate (and other) teachers in relation to the
professional standards for teaching
3. Studies examining the effectiveness of teacher preparation and the impact of
teacher quality on student learning
4. A focus on professional learning and clear career structures
VCDE response to New Directions for School Leadership and the Teaching Profession paper
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a) A focus on high quality graduate teachers (and then proficient teachers, highly
accomplished teachers, lead teachers)
VCDE supports the work done by the profession and guided by AITSL as well as the current
state regulatory authorities, to develop professional standards for teaching – what it is
effective teachers should know and be able to do at various stages of their careers. This
involves detailing the expected professional knowledge, professional practice and
professional engagement. However, as we have noted above, teaching is complex and
therefore recognizing and naming quality teaching is complex. Changing and challenging
curriculum expectations along with increasingly diverse learners mean that teachers have to
be quite sophisticated in their understanding of the effects of context and learner variability
on teaching and learning. Instead of implementing set routines, teachers need to be adept
at evaluating teaching situations and developing teaching and learning opportunities that
can be effective under different circumstances. Teaching is intellectual work requiring
professional judgment. Despite these challenges, professional standards for teaching have
been developed to describe effective professional practice at various junctures in a teaching
career (Australian Institute of Teaching and School Leadership, 2011b). These standards try
to capture the nuances associated with teaching in different subject areas and grade levels
as well as in different school systems and contexts.
As noted above, VCDE argues that more attention needs to be made at point of entry into
teaching/ at point of graduation, rather than at point of entry into teacher preparation. So,
now that professional standards for graduate teachers have been developed, we must
collectively determine how they will be used to judge teacher quality and determine entry
into the profession.
Moreover, teacher educator researchers can work with teachers, principals and bureaucrats
to interrogate the validity of the standards statements as accurate descriptors of what
effective teachers know and can do, over time. Many statements of professional standards
statements simply reflect the collective wisdom of whoever is invited to develop and then
comment on them at a particular point in time. There is sometimes reference to review of
research on effective teaching, but rarely are articulated standards subjected to rigorous
research interrogation over time.
2. A focus on authentic assessment against professional standards
Once research- and practice-validated professional standards for teaching are developed,
considerations should focus on how to use them to regulate entry into the profession and
progression within it. For teacher education, this involves providing evidence of graduates’
effectiveness as beginning teachers and considering the resultant implications for the
teacher education curriculum. Authentic judgement of beginning teacher quality is a crucial
issue we need to address as we think about the teacher education system of the 21st
century.
Until now, entry to the profession in Australia has been regulated by state agencies that use
input models to make decisions about teacher registration and readiness to teach.
Judgments are made about the quality of a teacher education program usually by paper
review involving a panel of stakeholders deciding on the likelihood that the program will
VCDE response to New Directions for School Leadership and the Teaching Profession paper
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prepare an effective beginning teacher. Then, employers and teacher registration
authorities use proxies like completion of the accredited teacher education program, grades
in university subjects or results in practicum evaluation forms and observations of teaching
to make a judgment about a graduating teacher’s level of professional knowledge and
practice - about their readiness to teach. So while new systems are increasingly arguing for a
standards-based and outcomes-focused approach to regulation of the profession (Australian
Institute of Teaching and School Leadership, 2011a), the mechanisms by which decisions are
made often still draw on an older inputs-based approach. We argue that authentic
assessments of the actual professional practice of teachers in the workplace, incorporating
multiple measures, and focussing on judging the impact of teachers on student learning, are
needed in an outcomes focused professional accountability system.
Darling-Hammond and Snyder propose five aspects of authentic assessment to judge
teaching:
1.
The assessments sample the actual knowledge, skills and dispositions desired of
teachers as they are used in teaching and learning contexts, rather than relying
on more remote proxies.
2.
The assessments require the integration of multiple kinds of knowledge and skill
as they are used in practice.
3.
Multiple sources of evidence are collected over time and in diverse contexts.
4.
Assessment evidence is evaluated by individuals with relevant expertise against
criteria that matter for performance in the field.
5.
The assessment practice includes multiple opportunities for learning and
practicing the desired outcomes and for feedback and reflection, ... in order to
develop as well as measure teaching judgement and skill.
(Darling-Hammond & Snyder, 2000, p.526-528)
Various examples of authentic assessment of teachers can be found in the US. For example,
Performance Assessment for California Teachers (PACT) represents a multiple measures
assessment used for initial teacher registration in California. It is designed to collect
evidence of preservice teachers’ content and pedagogical knowledge as well as higher-order
thinking skills (Pecheone & Chung, 2006) and assesses ‘the planning, instruction,
assessment, and reflection skills of student teachers against professional standards of
practice’ (Darling-Hammond, 2006, p.121). The tasks ‘are designed to measure and promote
candidates’ abilities to integrate their knowledge of content, students and instructional
context in making instructional decisions and to stimulate teacher reflection on practice’
(Pecheone & Chung, 2006, p.24).
A recent report prepared for the Queensland College of Teachers by The University of
Queensland researchers - An investigation of best practice in evidence-based assessment
within preservice teacher education programs and other professions (The State of
Queensland (Queensland College of Teachers), 2012) - provides a literature review of
assessment practices in preservice teacher education in Australia and internationally,
consultations on three national initiatives in Victoria (e.g. Dixon, Mayer, & Gallant, 2011),
and a scan of other professions, including the law, social work and allied health professions,
to examine how assessment was conducted within their professional degree programs and
how induction of graduates into professional practice was managed.
VCDE response to New Directions for School Leadership and the Teaching Profession paper
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Interrogation of all these works and ways in which such approaches can be used to focus on
the preparation of high quality graduate teachers, strengthen teacher preparation and
induction into the profession, and stimulate a culture of excellence, reflects an approach
VCDE would welcome in working in partnership to strengthen the teaching workforce in
Victoria.
3. A focus on investigating the effectiveness of teacher education and its impact on
student learning
VCDE supports systematic and robust evaluations of our programs, including feedback from
principals. A significant gap remains for high quality, larger scale research into the effect of
teacher education, both in Australia and internationally. There are some attempts in the US
to do this in a large and systematic way. One is a study in New York City involving a team of
researchers who are examining a number of different pathways into teaching, the
characteristic of those programs and the impact of their characteristics on a range of things,
including student achievement in reading and mathematics (Boyd et al., 2006). The other is
a study in Ohio (Lasley, Siedentop, & Yinger, 2006) and is similarly ambitious in its scope and
its goal to identify the impact of teacher education programs on teacher effectiveness. At
the University of Michigan, Deborah Ball and her colleagues are developing multiple
measures of teachers’ pedagogical knowledge and exploring the relationships between
teacher knowledge and student achievement (Ball, Thames, & Phelps, 2008; Hill, Schilling, &
Ball, 2004).
In Australia, one empirical investigation of the effectiveness of teacher education recruited
a group of teacher education students in their final year of teacher education and followed
them through to the end of their second year of teaching. The research attempted to link
program characteristics and personal characteristics with effectiveness in literacy and
mathematics teaching, taking account of the impact of school context on teaching
effectiveness (Louden, Heldsinger, House, Humphry, & Darryl Fitzgerald, 2010). Another
longitudinal mixed-methods study is following all teacher education graduates in Victoria
and Queensland into the first three years of their teaching career to determine the
effectiveness of their teacher preparation for the diverse settings in which these graduates
teach (Mayer et al., 2011-2014). This study has been expanded across all states (Mayer et
al., 2012-2013). The recent Productivity Commission supports such longitudinal analysis of
the value of teacher education (Productivity Commission, 2012).
4. A focus on professional learning and clear career structures
As noted above, VCDE supports a focus on ongoing professional learning for teachers and
school leaders with clear links to effective practice and related career structures which
incorporate clear expectations in relation to bands or levels and related roles. Moreover,
VCDE is keen to work with DEECD to prioritise the development of fit-for-purpose
postgraduate qualifications and related and articulated areas of study for teachers and
school leaders. At the moment, VCDE institutions offer a range of qualifications and units of
study but these are not always fit-for-purpose from the point of view of a particular
community of teacher learners or school leaders. Working collaboratively, we can develop
programs for cohorts of teachers or school leaders that meet their workplace needs and
VCDE response to New Directions for School Leadership and the Teaching Profession paper
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also recognise the learning that occurs in their workplaces (one example might be the
mentoring work that teachers provide to preservice teachers or early career teachers).
Concluding statement: Partnerships with VCDE for Achievement of DEECD Priorities
The Victorian Council of Deans of Education welcomes the development of a stronger
partnership with DEECD for the Education Profession at all levels. This will build capacity
and enhance the profession. Working with DEECD, the VCDE is committed to continue to
develop a positive reputation for teaching as a profession and build aspirations among
secondary schools students and university graduates from a range of disciplines. We are
also committed to a range of partnerships including, but not limited to:
 Developing extended relationships with schools focussed on improved learning
outcomes for young people.
 Preservice teacher education extended placements in schools with a focus on student
learning through sustained engagement with the real needs of schools.
 Graduate induction supported and scaffolded as an extension of initial teacher
education and in partnership with the school.
 Research focussed teacher and school leader/principal professional learning and
leadership providing an evidence base for school improvement, and credentialed
graduate education for the profession.
 Teacher educator researchers working collaboratively with the profession to improve
the knowledge base for teacher professional practice, school leadership and teacher
education.
The Victorian Council of Deans of Education welcomes the opportunity to respond to the
DEECD New Directions for School Leadership and the Teaching Profession, Discussion paper.
We are happy to discuss further any of the ideas included in this response.
References:
Australian Institute of Teaching and School Leadership. (2011a). Accreditation of initial teacher
education programs in Australia: Standards and Procedures. Carlton, Victoria: Ministerial
Council for Education, Early Childhood Development and Youth Affairs (MCEECDYA).
Australian Institute of Teaching and School Leadership. (2011b). National Professional Standards for
Teachers. Carlton, Victoria: Ministerial Council for Education, Early Childhood Development
and Youth Affairs (MCEECDYA).
Ball, D. L., Thames, M. H., & Phelps, G. (2008). Content knowledge for teaching: What makes it
special? Journal of Teacher Education, 59(5), 389-407.
Boyd, D. J., Grossman, P., Lankford, H., Loeb, S., Michelli, N. M., & Wyckoff, J. (2006). Complex by
design: Investigating pathways into teaching in New York city schools. Journal of Teacher
Education, 57(2), 155-166.
Cochran-Smith, M., & Fries, M. (2005). Researching Teacher Education in Changing Times: Politics
and Paradigms. In M. Cochran-Smith & K. Zeichner (Eds.), Studying Teacher Education: The
Report of the AERA Panel on Research and Teacher Education. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence
Erlbaum Publishers.
Darling-Hammond, L. (2006). Assessing teacher education: The usefulness of multiple measures for
assessing teacher outcomes. Journal of Teacher Education, 57(2), 120-138.
Darling-Hammond, L., & Bransford, J. (Eds.). (2005). Preparing Teachers for a Changing World: What
teachers should learn and be able to do. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
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Darling-Hammond, L., & Snyder, J. (2000). Authentic assessment of teaching in context. Teaching
and Teacher Education, 16(5-6), 523-545.
Dixon, M., Mayer, D., & Gallant, A. (2011). Authentically Assessing Beginning Teaching: Professional
Standards and Teacher Performance Assessment. A project funded by the Victorian
Department of Education and Early Childhood Education and the Victorian Institute of
Teaching.
Grimmett, P. (2009). Legitimacy and identity in teacher education: a micro-political struggle
constrained by macro-political pressures. Asia Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 37(1), 526.
Hill, H. C., Schilling, S. G., & Ball, D. L. (2004). Developing measures of teachers' mathematics
knowledge for teaching. The Elementary School Journal, 105(1), 11-30.
Lasley, T. J., Siedentop, D., & Yinger, R. (2006). A systematic approach to enhancing teacher quality:
The Ohio model. Journal of Teacher Education, 57(1), 13-21.
Louden, W., Heldsinger, S., House, H., Humphry, S., & Darryl Fitzgerald, D. (2010). Learning from
Teacher Education: The Impact of Teacher Education on Knowledge of Literacy and
Mathematics Teaching. Study of Effective Teacher Education: Progress Report 2. Canberra:
Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL).
Mayer, D., Allard, A., Bates, R., Doecke, B., Dixon, M., Kostogriz, A., . . . White, S. (2011-2014).
Investigating the Effectiveness of Teacher Education for Early Career Teachers in Diverse
Settings: A longitudinal study. Deakin University. Partners: Victorian Department of
Education and Early Childhood Development (DEECD), Queensland Department of Education
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(QCT), Griffith University.: Australian Research Council.
Mayer, D., Bates, R., Doecke, B., Kline, J., Kostogriz, A., Moss, J., & Walker-Gibbs, J. (2012-2013).
Longitudinal Teacher Workforce Main Study. Deakin University: Department of Education,
Employment & Workplace Relations (DEEWR).
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57(1), 22-36.
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in evidence-based assessment within preservice teacher education programs and other
professions. Brisbane, Queensland: Queensland College of Teachers.
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