Publication: What Matters Most for Teacher Policies : A Framework Paper
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2013-04
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2014-09-15
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Over the past decade, both developed and developing countries have become growingly concerned with how to raise the effectiveness of teachers. The growing focus on the need to strengthen the teaching profession to ensure better education results has encountered the problem that evidence on the policies that raise teaching quality is scattered, incomplete and, in some cases, presents contradictory findings. This paper provides a framework for analyzing teacher policies in education systems around the world in order to support informed education policy decisions. It provides a lens through which governments, World Bank staff, and other interested parties can focus the attention on what the relevant dimensions regarding teacher policies are, what teacher policies seem to matter most to improve student learning, and how to think about prioritization among competing policy options for teacher policy reform. The systems approach for better education results (SABER) - teachers initiative aims to collect, analyze, synthesize, and disseminate comprehensive information on teacher policies across countries around the world. The focus of the paper is the description of the conceptual framework to analyze and assess teacher policies, as well as a review of the evidence base that supports it. The document is organized as follows: section one provides an overview of the general approach, main components, and objectives of the framework, as well as an explanation of the evidence base that supported its development. Section two focuses on the first component of the framework, and describes the categories that are relevant to produce a comprehensive descriptive account of the teacher policies that are in place in a given education system. Section three focuses on policy guidance. Section four concludes presenting an account of how the framework is expected to evolve as new evidence on teacher policies becomes available.
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“World Bank. 2013. What Matters Most for Teacher Policies : A Framework Paper. Systems Approach for Better Education
Results (SABER) working paper series;no. 4. © http://hdl.handle.net/10986/20143 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
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Publication System Approach for Better Education Results (SABER) : What Matters Most in Teacher Policies? A Framework for Building a More Effective Teaching Profession(Washington, DC, 2012-07)The document is organized as follows. Section one provides an overview of the general approach, main components and objectives of the framework, as well as an explanation of the evidence base that supported its development. Section two focuses on the first component of the framework, and describes the categories that are relevant to produce a comprehensive descriptive account of the teacher policies that are in place in a given education system. Section three, in turn, focuses on policy guidance. It reviews those policies that, based on the available evidence to date, are known to matter most to improve student outcomes. It describes in detail the evidence supporting each of these policies, as well as the ways in which high performing education systems combine them to ensure outstanding student outcomes. The document concludes presenting an account of how the framework is expected to evolve as new evidence on teacher policies becomes available.Publication Serbia Teachers : SABER Country Report 2012(Washington, DC, 2012)In 2012, Serbia joined the Russia Education Aid for Development (READ) trust fund program, the goal of which is to help countries improve their capacity to design, carry out, analyze, and use assessments for improved student learning. As part of the READ trust fund program, and in order to gain a better understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of its existing assessment system, Mozambique participated in a formal exercise to benchmark this system under The World Bank's Systems Approach for Better Education Results (SABER) program. 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This report focuses specifically on policies in the area of teachers.Publication Kazakhstan Teachers(Washington, DC, 2013)A new tool, systems approach for better education results (SABER) teachers, aims to help fill the gap by collecting, analyzing, synthesizing, and disseminating comprehensive information on teacher policies in primary and secondary education systems around the world. SABER teacher's collects data on 10 core teacher policy areas to offer a comprehensive descriptive overview of the teacher policies that are in place in each participating education system. To offer informed policy guidance SABER teachers analyzes the information collected to assess the extent to which the teacher policies of an education system are aligned with those policies that research evidence to date has shown to have a positive effect on student achievement. SABER teachers analyzes the teacher policy data collected to assess each education system's progress in achieving eight teacher policy goals: (1) setting clear expectations for teachers; (2) attracting the best into teaching; (3) preparing teachers with useful training and experience; (4) matching teachers' skills with students' needs; (5) leading teachers with strong principals; (6) monitoring teaching and learning; (7) supporting teachers to improve instruction; and (8) motivating teachers to perform. By classifying countries according to their performance on each of the eight teacher policy goals, SABER teachers can help diagnose the key challenges that countries face in ensuring they have effective teachers.Publication Nigeria : Bauchi Teachers(Washington, DC, 2012-01)Research suggests that teacher quality is the main school-based predictor of student achievement and that several consecutive years of outstanding teaching can offset the learning deficits of disadvantaged students (Hanushek and Rivkin, 2006; Nye et al, 2004; Park and Hannum, 2001; Rivkin et al, 2005; Rockoff, 2004; Sanders, 1998; Sanders and Rivers 1996; and Vignoles et al, 2000). However, it is not yet clear exactly which teacher policies can raise teacher effectiveness (Goldhaber, 2002 and Rivkin et al, 2005). Thus, devising effective policies to improve teaching quality remains a challenge. The eight policy goals includes the following headings: setting clear expectations for teachers; attracting the best into teaching; preparing teachers with useful training and experience; matching teachers' skills with students' needs; leading teachers with strong principals; monitoring teaching and learning; supporting teachers to improve instruction; and motivating teachers to perform.Publication Nigeria : Ekiti Teachers(Washington, DC, 2012-01)Research suggests that teacher quality is the main school-based predictor of student achievement and that several consecutive years of outstanding teaching can offset the learning deficits of disadvantaged students (Hanushek and Rivkin, 2006; Nye et al, 2004; Park and Hannum, 2001; Rivkin et al, 2005; Rockoff, 2004; Sanders, 1998; Sanders and Rivers 1996; and Vignoles et al, 2000). However, it is not yet clear exactly which teacher policies can raise teacher effectiveness (Goldhaber, 2002 and Rivkin et al, 2005). Thus, devising effective policies to improve teaching quality remains a challenge. There is increasing interest across the globe to attract, retain, develop and motivate great teachers. While the World Bank has ample experience in supporting teacher policy reforms in developing countries, until recently there was no systematic effort to offer data and analysis that can provide policy guidance on teacher policies. The focus of the initiative is the design of teacher policies as opposed to their implementation on the ground. A number of complementary activities will be looking at implementation in a sample of countries as this will involve a different methodological approach and will require more financial and human resources.
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