1. Teachers Matter: Attracting, Developing and Retaining Effective Teachers
Lessons from the OECD Teacher Policy Report
Paulo Santiago
Education and Training Policy Division
Directorate for Education, OECD
Improving Learning Through Formative Assessment
International Conference
OECD - CERI
Paris, 2 February 2005

2. Outline of Presentation
1. The OECD Project Attracting, Developing and Retaining Effective Teachers
2. The impact of teachers and teaching on student learning
3. Policy context
4. Teachers’ roles are changing
5. Policy priorities: Developing teachers’ knowledge and skills
6. Other relevant policy priorities

3. OECD’s Activity “Attracting, Developing and Retaining Effective Teachers”
Purpose
To provide policy makers with information and analysis to assist them in formulating and implementing teacher policies leading to quality teaching and learning at the school level.
Objectives
to synthesise research on issues related to policies concerned with attracting, recruiting, retaining and developing effective teachers;
to identify innovative and successful policy initiatives and practices;
to facilitate exchanges of lessons and experiences among countries; and
to identify policy options.
 Focus is on teacher policy, not the practice and performance level of teachers.
 Study did not address teaching/classroom strategies per se.

4. Participating countries
OECD’s Activity “Attracting, Developing and Retaining Effective Teachers”
Participating countries
25 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.
10 countries visited by review teams
Austria, Belgium (Flemish and French Comm.), Germany, Hungary, Italy, Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland.

5. OECD’s Activity “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:
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

6. Three broad conclusions emerge from research on student learning
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.

7. 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.

8. Policy Context
About half the countries report serious concerns about maintaining an adequate supply of good quality teachers, especially in high-demand subject areas
There are widespread concerns about long-term trends in the composition of the teaching workforce e.g. fewer “high achievers”, and fewer males
There are major concerns about the limited connections between teacher education, professional development, and school needs
Some countries experience high rates of teacher attrition, especially among new teachers
Some countries have a large over-supply of qualified teachers, which raises its own policy challenges

9. Policy Context (continued)
In some countries there are serious concerns about teacher morale and enthusiasm
Almost all countries report concerns about “qualitative” shortfalls: whether enough teachers have the knowledge and skills to meet school needs
The ageing of the teaching profession is compounding policy concerns

10. 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.

11. 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.

12. Policy priorities: Developing teachers‘ knowledge and skills
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.

13. Policy priorities: Developing teachers‘ knowledge and skills
Initial teacher education
Improve selection into teacher education
Information and counselling
Assessment
Early school experience
Incentives for high potentials
Provide more flexible forms of initial teacher education
Modular, part-time, distance education
Alternate routes for mid-career changers
Strengthen partnerships between teacher education institutions and schools
Overt and deliberate partnerships
Earlier and broader field experience

14. Policy priorities: Developing teachers‘ knowledge and skills
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

15. Policy priorities: Developing teachers‘ knowledge and skills
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

16. Policy priorities: Developing teachers‘ knowledge and skills
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

17. Other relevant 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;
Monitoring the outcomes of a more decentralised approach;
Creating independent appeals procedures to ensure fairness and protect teachers’ rights.
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

18. Other relevant 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.

19. Other relevant policy priorities
Providing more opportunities for career diversification
Teaching would benefit from a career ladder based on skills, responsibilities and performance. There needs to be more opportunities for career diversity and mobility (between schools, between roles, and between teaching and other careers)
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

20. Other relevant 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.

21. Other relevant 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

22. Final Report For further information: www.oecd.org/edu/teacherpolicy
Teachers Matter: Attracting, Developing and Retaining Effective Teachers
To be published as an OECD Publication in early 2005
For further information: