How High-Performing Nations Treat Educators as Professionals
Countries with top-performing education systems in the world all share a key component – high-quality professional development, which is largely missing in the U.S., according to two reports released last week. The studies found that high-perfoming nations include professional learning in the daily work of teachers, where it’s considered a primary practice for school improvement. They also offer career ladders for educators, which has led to higher teacher quality.
The reports were released by the National Center on Education and the Economy (NCEE) Center on International Education Benchmarking at a forum in Washington, D.C. on January 14. The authors were joined by leading voices in education, including NEA President Lily Eskelsen García, to discuss how the U.S. could learn from the top nations.
“When teachers have strong incentives to get better and better at their work, and they are given the opportunity to work together every day in teams to improve student achievement, they never stop seeking and finding information that can help them do a better job,” said NCEE President and CEO Marc Tucker.
In Beyond PD: Teacher Professional Learning in High-Performing Systems, Ben Jensen, an Australian researcher, analyzed the professional learning systems in four high-performing systems: Shanghai, British Columbia, Singapore, and Hong Kong, all of which score near the top of all jurisdictions tested in mathematics, reading and science on the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA).
All of these systems free up time during the school day for collaborative professional learning, create leadership roles for expert teachers to mentor and develop other teachers and lead school improvement teams, and recognize and reward the development of teacher expertise.
“Accountability is also different,” Jensen said at the forum last week. “They have three measures of focus: school performance, quality of instruction, and quality of How High-Performing Nations Treat Educators as Professionals - NEA Today:
