Publish at March 22 2011 Updated March 29 2022
What do the education systems of Singapore, Ontario, and Finland have in common? Not much other than that they are high-performing internationally. And what can they have to do with systems as technological as Maine's, the first state to adopt the one-computer/one-student system?
For the first three, one commonality unites them beyond their important differences in organization and operation: they do not leave the question of teacher quality to chance. Not only do they select only the best candidates for the profession, but they also prepare them and support them in a process of continuous improvement throughout their careers. Thus they recruit, prepare, develop, and retain committed and effective teachers and leaders.
Beyond an established policy, we are talking about a coherent professional system and environment. Initially we attract and select the best candidates; places are earned. Then we invest in lifelong learning: training and collaboration time for teachers built into the system's practices. We also make the teaching profession attractive and prestigious, a profession where the efforts invested by teachers create value, culture, and lead to recognition and opportunity. Finally, the system of recruiting leaders takes into account pedagogical skills as a priority: they are excellent teachers. Administrators from outside the education system are not hired, just as an elementary school teacher would not run a high school without having taught at the high school level.
These findings come from the Alliance for Excellent Education and the Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education's report "Teacher and Leader Effectiveness in High-Performing Education Systems"
Parallel to this, a short analysis of Maine's education system and its 1:1 (one computer/one student) experiment, with its ups and downs, comes to much the same conclusions as to the success factors: ongoing teacher training is one of the main keys. After nine years of operation of this program, conclusions have become clear.
Not only must the goals to be achieved be precisely identified, which will define "success," but it is necessary to support leaders and teachers with the means to discover how, to organize, and to share their findings toward the defined goals. Clearing time for regular and systematic training and sharing is essential.
In the Maine context where all schools are well-equipped and connected, online trainings in the form of "Webinars" are very common as well as the accompanying online resources, but it is noted that in the other three examples above these formulas are also implicit.
The Internet allows for local accountability and greater sharing across schools. Successful systems leverage these opportunities. These possibilities are powerful and cost almost nothing. In fact they enable significant improvements at marginal cost.
References
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