Teacher Evaluation in Portugal OECD Review By Paulo Santiago, Deborah Roseveare, Gonnie van Amelsvoort, Jorge Manzi and Peter Matthews JULY 2009 ORGANISATION FOR ECONOMIC CO-OPERATION AND DEVELOPMENT The OECD is a unique forum where the governments of 30 democracies work together to address the economic, social and environmental challenges of globalisation. The OECD is also at the forefront of efforts to understand and to help governments respond to new developments and concerns, such as corporate governance, the information economy and the challenges of an ageing population. The Organisation provides a setting where governments can compare policy experiences, seek answers to common problems, identify good practice and work to co-ordinate domestic and international policies. The OECD member countries are: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Luxembourg, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, the Slovak Republic, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States. The Commission of the European Communities takes part in the work of the OECD. This work is published on the responsibility of the Secretary-General of the OECD. The opinions expressed and the arguments employed herein do not necessarily reflect the official views of the Organisation or of the governments of its member countries. OECD © 2009 FOREWORD-3 FOREWORD Education systems play a fundamental role in enhancing economic growth and social cohesion, developing young people to reach their full potential and underpinning healthy and vibrant societies. Student learning is influenced by many factors. These include the student‟s own skills, expectations, motivation and behaviour along with the support they receive from their families and the influence of their peer group. School organisation, resources and climate; curriculum structure and content; and teacher skills, knowledge, attitudes and practices are also critical factors and the focus of attention for policymakers. Schools and classrooms are complex, dynamic environments and within them, effective teachers are enthusiastic and creative, convey ideas in clear and convincing ways, provide stimulating learning environments for different types of students, foster productive teacher-student relationships and work effectively with colleagues and parents. This was confirmed in many countries in the just-published OECD Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS). Teachers are critical to the success of Portugal‟s efforts to raise its education standards. Teachers need feedback on their performance to help them identify how to better shape and improve their teaching practice and, with the support of effective school leadership, to develop schools as professional learning communities. At the same time, teachers should be accountable for their performance and progress in their careers on the basis of demonstrated effective teaching practice. The key challenge for education reform in Portugal now is to implement meaningful teacher evaluation as a tool to lifting education performance and to recognise teachers as professionals deeply committed to improving the learning outcomes of their students. This report provides an external, independent review of teacher evaluation in Portugal and offers our assessment of the strengths of the current model and ways in which it needs to be improved in order to be successfully implemented. It is important to recognise that the present model of teacher evaluation provides a good basis for further development and the way forward is to build on the significant gains that have already been made, while addressing the weaknesses. The review team found a high degree of general consensus among the teaching profession that meaningful teacher evaluation is indispensable. This is a major achievement and provides the basis and scope for moving towards successful implementation. The task now for Portugal is to develop the roadmap and timeline for managing the transition to a more robust model for career progression, while consolidating the use of developmental evaluation for teachers within the schools that includes classroom observation for all teachers and rich qualitative feedback. Barbara Ischinger Director for Education OECD July 2009 OECD © 2009 4-TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS FOREWORD ................................................................................................................................................... 3 ASSESSMENT AND CONCLUSIONS ......................................................................................................... 5 1: INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................................................... 13 1.1 Purposes of the OECD Review ............................................................................................................ 13 1.2 The Participation of Portugal ............................................................................................................... 13 1.3 Structure of the Report ......................................................................................................................... 14 2: THE CONTEXT AND FEATURES OF TEACHER EVALUATION IN PORTUGAL ......................... 15 2.1 The school system ................................................................................................................................ 15 2.2 The teaching profession ....................................................................................................................... 20 2.3 Teacher evaluation ............................................................................................................................... 23 3: STRENGTHS AND CHALLENGES OF TEACHER EVALUATION ................................................... 32 3.1 Overall framework for teacher evaluation ........................................................................................... 32 3.2 Evaluation procedures .......................................................................................................................... 36 3.3 Competencies to assess and to use feedback ....................................................................................... 39 3.4 Using evaluation results ....................................................................................................................... 41 4: POINTERS FOR FUTURE POLICY DEVELOPMENT ......................................................................... 44 5: CONCLUDING REMARKS .................................................................................................................... 58 REFERENCES .............................................................................................................................................. 60 APPENDIX 1: THE OECD REVIEW TEAM .............................................................................................. 63 APPENDIX 2: PROGRAMME OF THE REVIEW VISIT .......................................................................... 64 APPENDIX 3: ADDITIONAL FEATURES OF THE PORTUGUESE EDUCATION SYSTEM AND THE TEACHING PROFESSION ................................................................................................................. 68 APPENDIX 4: COMPARATIVE INDICATORS ........................................................................................ 71 APPENDIX 5: FIGURES FEATURING TALIS RESULTS ....................................................................... 80 APPENDIX 6: STANDARDISED FORMS TO RECORD TEACHER PERFORMANCE SUGGESTED BY MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND SELF-EVALUATION FORM .................................................. 84 OECD © 2009 ASSESSMENT AND CONCLUSIONS-5 ASSESSMENT AND CONCLUSIONS The current model of teacher evaluation in Portugal has been contentious but is necessary Teacher evaluation plays a key role in efforts to boost education performance by emphasising high competence as a teacher. Previously, teachers progressed through the career structure on the basis of length of service and other fairly mechanical criteria, without any connection to effective teaching practice. Within schools, there is no culture of classroom observation and little tradition of peer evaluation, feedback and the sharing of good practice. In addition, most professional development still involves attending external training events rather than continuous, school-centred coaching and mentoring support. Yet these features of the teaching environment are not counter-balanced by a high performing school system - Portugal‟s performance in international surveys remains well below the OECD average. Against this backdrop, the Government‟s efforts to introduce meaningful teacher evaluation are very important and should be sustained. A range of factors explain resistance to implementation Implementation of the model has been challenging. In part, this reflects natural resistance to change and the introduction of a new culture of evaluation. These changes have followed earlier adjustments in the terms and conditions of employment for civil servants, including teachers, such as the deferment of the retirement age, the two-year suspension of career progressions and very restricted wage rises. Indeed, the reforms to the teaching profession are linked to, and constrained by, public sector reforms more generally. The need to align