Teacher career reforms: learning from experience

Countries all over the world are also grappling with the related challenges of poor teacher working conditions and dwindling retention rates and teacher career reforms have been identified as a potentially powerful lever. Many governments are looking for ways to diversify teacher career structures and to widen career advancement opportunities in order to attract and retain high-performing teachers. Appropriate policies and the management of teacher careers are critical to achieving quality teaching and learning and to addressing teacher scarcity. A close examination of the organization and management of teacher careers can provide useful insights into making a teaching career more appealing. A number of countries have reformed their teacher career structures over the past decades, and others intend to introduce changes in the near future. To benefit from the experience of school systems that have already implemented such reforms, we looked into the organization and management of teacher careers in Colombia, Ecuador, Ethiopia, Lithuania, Mexico, New York City, Peru, Scotland, South Africa, and Thailand.