Successful policies for student performance: a global perspective

1. Successful policies for student performance: a global perspective Alberto Rodriguez World Bank Warsaw, Poland, November 2011

2. Learning outcomes • Education quality means that enough learning takes place in schools • Why should we care about learning outcomes? • Because individual returns to education are linked to learning, not just to years of education • Because the overall economy benefits from quality education

3. Returns to cognitive skills are strong

4. System Performance AHELO CLA PASEC PIAAC MLA

5. Five policies • School Readiness: Early Childhood Education (Latin America’s experience) • Assessment as a tool for quality (Jordan’s experience) • Service delivery and autonomy: Private provision and public finance (The Netherlands experience) • Education system structure: delaying tracking (the Polish experience) • Teachers: the heart of learning (benchmarking policies)

7. Eleven programswerereviewed in depth

8. ComprehensiveChild-Centered Coordinated interventions across multiple sectors Multi-Sectoral Institutional Arrangements Intervention Areas/Mechanisms Specific Sector Specific Sector w/ inputs from other sector Multiple sectors, specific programs for targeted or universal populations Comprehensive regular monitoring, some universal services, with tailored interventions Cross-Sectoral Institutional Arrangements Sectoral Single-sector interventions

9. ComprehensiveChild-Centered • Chile: • Programa de Alimentación Escolar • Colombia: • Familias en Acción • Ecuador: • Bono de Desarrollo Humano • Jamaica: • PATH • Honduras: • PRAF • Mexico: • Oportunidades • Nicaragua: • Red de Protección Social, Atención a Crisis Multi-Sectoral • Chile: • Chile Crece Contigo • Latin America: • Preschool education • Chile: • JUNJI, Integra • Mexico: • EducaciónInicial, PASL • Peru: • Vaso de leche • Bolivia: • Kallpa Wawa, PIDI • Colombia: • Instituto Colombiano de Bienestar Familiar • Honduras: • Madres Guías • Nicaragua: • PAININ Cross-Sectoral Sectoral

10. Policy implications • Comprehensive policies help scale up investments in ECD programs • Multisectoral and inter-institutional coordination • Core “building blocks” for a comprehensive ECD policy: • Defining an institutional anchor and achieving inter-sectoral coordination • Ensuring adequate funding • Developing/strengthening systems to monitor individual young children’s developmental paths • Building on evidence of what works from rigorous evaluations • Ensuring coherence with related policies

11. 2. Assessment Testing can be used to Inform Policy Decisions

13. Jordan Participated in TIMSS 1999 • The results of the study came as a shock • About 75% of students in mathematics and 67% of students in science scored lower than the international average • Jordan ranked 3rd from the bottom in both subjects among the 20 participating countries

14. Education Reform • Expert committee established to investigate causes of poor performance • Item-by-item examination of the test and school curricula • Jordan re-administered the entire TIMSS examination • Results identical to those obtained during the first round of testing • However, the results served to inform efforts to reform educational quality

15. Actions Taken • Establish benchmarks of 13-year-olds’ achievement • Identify strength and weakness in each subject • Compare performance of students • Inform teacher training • Analyze characteristics related to achievement • Target negative and positive influences

21. 3. Private Education Provision and Public Finance: The Netherlands • 1917: ‘schools to the parents’ • Segregation ended conflict • Freedom of education, religion, constitution • Today: • Country unified • But schools retain independence • Ease of entry • Private Education Provision and Public Finance:The Case of the Netherlands, H.A. Patrinos

22. Flow of Funds Targeted Funds for Low-Income & Minorities: For minority student 1.9 times basic amount For Dutch from low income background 1.25 times basic amount

23. Information • Trouw, 1997: http://www.trouw.nl/onderwijs/ • Education Inspectorate: http://www.onderwijsinspectie.nl

24. Private & Public Shares Primary Secondary

25. System Characteristics • Centralization & School Choice • Risk-based Inspection • Equal Treatment • Autonomy of Dutch Schools

26. Dutch Students High Achievers

27. Not High Spender Expenditures per student

28. Contribution of Private Schools

29. 4. Systemic reforms: organizational structure in Poland

30. Old Structure New Structure Exam Exam Exam Exam Exam Exam Exam Matura Matura Matura Matura Matura Change in Structure of System

31. Reform Timeline

32. OECD average Impressive Gains PISA

33. Top 10

34. Not All Transition Countries Improved PISA - Reading

36. 5. Teachers: Gathering the good policies • We know from recent analysis that teacher policies (training, selection, deployment, compensation, promotion, and development) are the key for a high performance system • But we know less about in what specific ways these policies are effective • So the World Bank is launching a global benchmarking effort on teacher policies: SABER teachers.

37. Motivation for SABER-Teachers • Teachers are the most important school-level factor in student outcomes • Limited information and evidence exists as to what are the most effective policies to attract, motivate, and retain qualified teachers • SABER-Teachers intends to fill this gap by: • collecting • analyzing • synthesizing, and • disseminating comprehensive information on teacher policies in primary and secondary education across different systems

38. Conceptual Framework First, the team identified 10 central teacher policy areas, which guide the data collection effort, and informed the data collection approach To assess how well are education systems succeeding in attracting, retaining, and motivating effective teachers, we identified 8 teacher policy goals To analyze interactions and complementarities between the various teacher policy goals, and alignment to broader education goals, we identified 4 teacher policy profiles

39. 10 Teachers Policy Areas Requirements for entering and remaining in the teaching profession Initial teacher preparation Recruitment and employment Teacher workloads and autonomy Professional development Compensation: salary and non-salary benefits Retirement rules and benefits Monitoring and evaluation of teacher quality Teacher representation and voice School leadership

40. 8 Core Teacher Policy Goals 1 2 Setting clear expectations for teachers Attracting the best into teaching 8 3 Preparing teachers with useful training & experience Motivating teachers to perform Effective Teachers 7 4 Supporting teachers to improve instruction Matching teachers’ skills with students’ needs 6 Monitoring teaching and learning Leading teachers with strong principals 5

41. Analysis of Top-Performing Systems • Grouped top-performing education systems into four groups • Analyzed their teacher policies in detail to identify benchmarks for the 4 levels of development: Latent, Emerging, Established, Advanced • Used Groups A&B to identify Teacher Policy Profiles

42. 4 Teacher Policy Profiles Professional Autonomy: select the best into teaching, prepare them exceptionally well, then give them ample autonomy. Shared Responsibility: built around the notion that excellent teaching is the responsibility of the whole profession, not individual teachers; put in place mechanisms to foster collaboration and peer accountability Career Development: focus on building teacher capacity throughout the career, from induction to professional development, formative assessment, and strong instructional leaders as school heads. Performance Management: tight control over teachers’ work, “leave nothing to chance.”

43. Examples of the 4 TP Profiles

44. Thank you ! • Alberto Rodriguez, Ph.D. • Manager for Education • Europe and Central Asia Region • The World Bank • arodriguez@worldbank.org