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If good teachers are the number one factor for excellence in student achievement, next comes high-quality leadership.
Teachers
Education at a Glance 2008: OECD Indicators shows there are striking differences between countries in their approaches to teacher recruitment, time spent teaching, pay and training and career structures. International analysis allows countries to learn more about themselves by comparing their experiences with those of other countries, while building up evidence on the impact of different approaches to teacher policy.
School leadership
In most OECD countries, school principals are getting older. Large numbers of school leaders are due to retire over the next five to ten years. This creates both challenges and new opportunities for OECD education systems. While it will mean a major loss of experience, it will provides an unprecedented opportunity to recruit and develop a new generation of school leaders with the knowledge, skills and disposition required to meet current and future needs in education.
In a recently published book, Improving School Leadership - Volume 1: Policy and Practice and Volume 2: Case Studies on System Leadership, five case studies describe innovative approaches to school leadership which are showing emerging evidence of positive results. Notably, Austria’s Leadership Academy helps participants to learn skills and techniques in such areas as communication and feedback, mentoring and coaching, project management and leadership competence. Courses take a holistic approach which also involves dancing, gymnastics and survival camp ! Participants often start out with some skepticism, but according to the report “such reservations vanish over time”. More than 1 200 of the 3 000 school leaders for whom the programme was designed have now completed the course, a considerable achievement in just a few years of operation.
Further reading:
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Attracting and retaining teachers
Concerns about the supply and quality of teachers are generating new policies in many OECD countries. Here’s why.
OECD Observer article by Robert B. Schwartz, Harvard Graduate School of Education, Judy Wurtzel, Aspen Institute Education and Society Program, Lynn Olson, Education Week
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Was it worth it?
Reflections on a teaching career.
OECD Observer article by Kieran Clarke
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