Ei-iE

Teacher evaluation is the main topic under review at the third International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Amsterdam, Netherlands, from 13-14 March.

At the summit, education ministers and teacher leaders from high-performing education systems across the globe, and representatives of the OECD, will debate education key issues such as:

• How teacher quality is defined, what standards are set and by whom;
• What systems are in place for teacher evaluation and how evaluations are conducted;
• How teacher evaluation contributes to school improvement and teacher self-efficacy.

Key speakers include OECD Deputy Director for Education and Skills, Andreas Schleicher, Dutch Education Minister, Jet Bussemaker and EI General Secretary, Fred van Leeuwen.

"Now more than ever, we need a shared vision for quality education. There is a risk that cutbacks and austerity measures will impact professional standards and developments", said van Leeuwen at the opening ceremony today.

"Defining these standards needs to be achieved in cooperation between education ministries and teacher unions. Only then will we be able to face the challenges that lie ahead", he added.

Teacher appraisal issues The concept of teacher appraisal raises concerns for education trade unions worldwide. For instance: what criteria are used to evaluate educators? Who decides on the criteria? What should the results of teacher appraisals be used for?

To help analyse these issues, the publication “ The use and misuse of teacher appraisal. An overview of cases in the developed world”, by Laura Figazzolo, EI Research Institute, will be released at the Summit.

The publication outlinesavailable research about effective approaches to teacher appraisal and examples of reforms that have produced specific results.

“The latest OECD evidence shows that having a national teacher appraisal scheme is not essential to an education system’s success,” said John Bangs,Senior Consultant to the EI General Secretary.

“For example, countries with high performing education systems, such as Finland and Norway, do not have them. For appraisal to work, therefore, it must be valued by teachers and be seen as a welcome addition to their professional lives.”

Performance-related pay One of the sharpest debates will be around the relationship between rewards and performance, the so-called merit pay for teachers. This is currently being implemented or trialed in several countries around the world, including England.

EI argues that there is no evidence that performance-related pay impacts positively on student outcomes. On the contrary, extensive research shows that the evaluations involved in the process divide the profession and decrease teacher motivation.

Policy development needs educators’ voice A common objective agreed in past Summits, hosted by the US in New York, was to make education policy development at national level a partnership between both government and teachers’ organisations.

EI believes the implementation of new teacher evaluation methods is one of the key processes where both teachers and education trade unions should be actively involved and work in partnership with governments and employers.