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HGSE Faculty Partake in International Seminar on Teacher Policy

Academic Dean Robert Schwartz and Pforzheimer Professor Susan Moore Johnson played prominent roles at an international seminar in October that examined how to recruit, retrain, develop, and nurture a high-quality teaching force.

Schwartz, who chaired the seminar, and Johnson, who prepared the background paper for the meeting, met with 25 policymakers, researchers and practitioners from eight countries to exchange policy ideas geared toward creating a high-quality teaching force. The conference, which was organized by The Aspen Institute and funded by the Rockefeller Foundation and the Carnegie Corporation, was held from October 17-20 at Rockefeller's conference center in Bellagio, Italy.

"It opened up for us a sense of possibilities," Johnson said. "I'm interested in seeing what can be learned by comparing our practices in the U.S. with those of other countries. You learn a lot by listening to what others tried and what did or didn't work. We can save time by making sure that we don't make the same mistakes."

The four-day seminar was based on a 2005 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) published report called Teachers Matter: Attracting, Developing, and Retaining Effective Teachers. The report provided a comprehensive analysis of teacher policies in 25 countries. HGSE doctoral student Mindy Munger prepared policy profiles on each of the participating countries based on the OECD report and other materials furnished by their ministries and organized background readings for the seminar.

The eight countries participating in the seminar worked in teams to exchange ideas on teacher policy. The U.S. team consisted of Johnson, former U.S Secretary of Education Dick Riley, former Assistant Secretary Susan Sclafani, Ohio Federation of Teachers President Tom Mooney, and former San Francisco Public School Superintendent Arlene Ackerman.

Acknowledging the changing roles of teachers, country representatives shared their policies and ideas in three areas: induction and support of beginning teachers, working and learning conditions to support teacher growth, and differential roles and compensation to retain outstanding teachers.

The issue of changing the structure of the teaching profession and how to move toward different compensation schemes resonated with the U.S. team.

While there are some structured programs that create teacher leadership roles in the U.S., Johnson said there needs to be more. "Many districts give teachers with National Board certification an extra stipend, but very often they aren't given special responsibilities with the extra pay," she said. "Districts don't use the skills of these expert teachers very effectively and so, as a result, not much is done to increase the instructional capacity of the schools."

Other countries are experimenting in this area and have developed programs. For example, the United Kingdom and Australia have programs called Advanced Skill Teachers, which rewards excellent teachers who wish to remain in the classroom. Under this program, teachers spend one day a week supporting other teachers in developing their skills and experience by sharing their best practice ideas and approaches. Singapore has created a track for master teachers that provides comparable pay and status to those who leave the classroom and opt for administrative leadership positions.

Prior to attending the seminar, the U.S. participants convened in Washington D.C. with U.S. organizations that work exclusively on teacher policy. "The whole point of the seminar was to see if we can learn from best policies and practices in other countries and inject these ideas into our policy discussions at home," Schwartz said. "If we are serious about making teaching a mature profession then we must make progress on the topics that were central to the seminar, especially the need to create career paths that will keep the very strongest teachers in the classroom while allowing them to provide leadership to others."

"What U.S. participants realized through the conversation is that we have a shared interest in seeing whether the role of the teacher could become stronger and more fully developed with a set of career options that are more in line with what schools need today," Johnson said. "We have a sense that there is some important work to be done and we would like to launch a national conversation that began at the conference."

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