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Independent Education Recognising Accomplished Teaching |
September 2007
Background
The Independent Education Union of Australia has long supported the
recognition of accomplished teachers in schools. For two decades, the IEUA has argued for
recognition arrangements that provide teachers with opportunities for more
varied, fulfilling and better paid jobs and improvement in the educational
opportunities and collegial support in schools
Such a package should involve a well supported program of teacher skill development – which the union views as a professional right – that is integrated into a democratically managed program of whole school development.
Integrated
Career Structure
The IEUA believes that what is required in
Australia is the development of an integrated career
structure for teachers that is reflective of the work currently underway in
Australia around accomplished teacher standards, including the work of teacher
registration authorities and subject associations. Such a career structure
requires a substantial commitment of resources by employers and governments. The integrated career structure should take
into account the many phases in a teacher’s career including early career,
experienced, highly accomplished and leadership.
·
The IEUA believes that appraisal
of accomplished teachers must be on the basis of agreed criteria, and that the
appraisal must be conducted fairly and impartially by trained personnel.
·
The IEUA notes that international
research reveals that quotas undermine the collaborative approach which characterises teachers’ work. Teachers find themselves
competing with colleagues which can lead to an unproductive work environment
and adversarial relationships among staff.
Therefore any notion of arbitrary quotas should be rejected.
·
The IEUA expects that an
indication of genuine commitment to recognising
accomplished teachers by employers and governments requires a commitment to
ongoing funding for the plan.
·
The IEUA notes that research
evidence points to the success of any such initiative being dependent on the
support of all who will participate or are affected. This includes teachers and
their unions, employing authorities, administrators and the community. All
these groups should therefore be included in the planning process.
·
The IEUA rejects the notion of
‘rewarding’ teachers on the basis of student outcomes. The IEUA notes that such an approach has been
tried and has failed in other countries.
Further, such an approach undermines the collegial and supportive team
environment critical for quality teaching and learning
·
The IEUA also rejects the quite
naïve notion of ‘rewarding’ teachers based on popularity or ranking measures as
divisive, lacking in any objectivity and subject to patronage.
The IEUA has long supported the concept of professional career pathways
underpinned by the right to professional learning and the development of an
objective framework that supports, encourages and focuses on teachers’
professional development. Such a framework recognises
not only the complex nature of the work undertaken by teachers but also the
collegial, cooperative and supportive environment that is critical to the
‘full’ educational interests of students
The development of objective frameworks or standards must reflect
recognition for commitment through professional learning, active engagement in
the life of the school, as well as the teacher’s commitment to and provision of
opportunities in the learning environment of students. This reflects the
community’s expectations that a full and positive school experience provided by
accomplished teachers for students is manifestly more substantial and broader
ranging than the overly simplistic notion of assessing teachers through student
outcomes on the national testing benchmark agenda.
The IEUA notes and endorses key elements of the TeacherSolutions report by the Center for
Teaching Quality (www.teacherleaders.org)
and in particular notes the following recommendations underpinning any scheme
to recognise accomplished teaching:
• Get the base-pay system right
• Any
scheme must be open to all; that is, no artificial cap or quota and not limited to subjects that are tested
• Recognition
for relevant additional degrees and Professional Development
• Encourage collaboration
• Incentives for high need areas
• Include teachers in the development
In this context the IEUA believes that the following principles are
necessary in the development of any systemic approach to identifying and
rewarding accomplished teachers.
The importance of accomplished teaching
1. Student achievement depends to a large extent on the knowledge, skills and application of their teachers
2. Greater value needs to be placed on the work of teachers
who attain accomplished teaching standards to provide
significant incentives for all teachers to develop their professional practice.
3. If greater value is to be placed on good teaching, it is necessary to increase our ability to evaluate teacher performance in ways that are valid, reliable and fair.
Defining accomplished teaching
1. Standards for defining accomplished teaching should be
research-based, and subject to rigorous validation.
2. Standards for evaluating teacher performance should
reflect the full scope of what teachers are expected to
know and be able to do, and factors that are under their control.
3. The
knowledge and skill underpinning effective teaching is sophisticated and
complex – standards for accomplished teaching and methods for gathering
evidence need to reflect this complexity.
Assessing accomplished teaching
1. Valid methods for evaluating teacher performance focus
directly on evidence about what students are doing,
learning and experiencing as a result of conditions for learning established by
the teacher.
2. Systems for rewarding accomplished teaching should be
based on high teaching performance standards, not on quotas.
(It is in everyone's interest for all teachers to achieve high teaching
standards)
3. Such systems have a different purpose from annual reviews
of performance based on contractual duties that
are the responsibility of employers: they are intended to support major stages
of career advancement.
4. A
valid system for assessing teacher performance does not narrow or distort the
curriculum that teachers are expected to teach
5. Valid
systems for assessing teacher performance require schools with conditions that
enable teachers to teach as well as they can
6. Valid
systems for assessing teacher performance take into account the context of
specific teaching-learning environments
Implementing systems for identifying and recognising accomplished teaching
1. Governments, employing authorities, registration bodies,
the teaching profession and their unions all need to be involved
in designing and implementing systems for identifying recognising
accomplished teaching.
2. A
system for identifying accomplished teachers needs to be administratively
feasible, publicly credible, professionally acceptable, legally defensible and
appropriately funded.
3. Systems for identifying teachers who attain high standards
of teaching should be profession-wide and provide teachers with a widely-recognised
portable certification.
4. Promotional positions need to be available in schools for teachers who are awarded professional certification to capitalise on their expertise and capacity for teacher leadership.
5. An effective system for rewarding accomplished teachers will require additional recurrent funding from governments.
6. Effective systems for identifying accomplished teachers provide incentives and information that lead to improved teaching practices
A general framework based on standards developed in collaboration with the profession, research based and verified should identify and support an integrated career structure for teachers.
The Ministerial Council of State and Federal Education Ministers (MCEETYA) has already proposed a National Framework for Standards including four career dimensions (Graduation, Competence, Accomplishment and Leadership) and describes the work of teachers through four categories(Professional Knowledge, Professional Practice, Professional Values and Professional Relationships.)
Based
on the work of MCEETYA and the work in a number of jurisdictions in
Pre-service teacher education
Graduate teacher
Competent teacher
Accomplished teacher
Leadership
The IEUA
notes the work of a number of State registration authorities on standards
including the Queensland College of Teachers, NSW Institute of Teachers and the
Victorian Institute of Teachers. The
IEUA supports the continuing work of the State registration authorities and
believes that it will be possible in time to develop a Nationally Consistent
set of standards to describe and identify teachers across the various teacher
career bands.
The
IEUA notes that a number of industrial models that recognize accomplished
teachers, based on a standards-based assessment process, already exist around
These schemes were developed in negotiation
with the relevant union and based on standards developed in collaboration with
the profession.
The IEUA supports the ongoing development
and trialling of such schemes and the cooperation
between various jurisdictions to ensure that best-practice models are known and
shared.
Lynne Rolley
Federal Secretary
Independent Education
(03) 9254 1830
www.ieu.org.au