Effective teacher policies. Insights from PISA. Overview

This brochure presents an overview of the report "Effective teacher policies. Insights from PISA".

The report explores three teacher-policy questions: How do the best-performing countries select, develop, evaluate and compensate teachers? How does teacher sorting across schools affect the equity of education systems? And how can countries attract and retain talented men and women to teaching?

The findings show that, contrary to what is often assumed, high-performing systems do not enjoy a natural privilege simply due to a traditional respect for teachers; they have also built a high-quality teaching force as a result of deliberate policy choices, carefully implemented over time. The findings also show that there are multiple models from which other countries can derive inspiration. The fact that high performers are found on three continents and within different traditions of public governance and employment implies that incremental reforms, progressively implemented over time and within the constraints set by larger school policies and social contexts, can go a long way towards improving a system’s capacity to select, develop and retain more effective teachers, and ensure that the most talented teachers operate in the most challenging schools and classrooms.